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Dutch Study Says Filesharing Has Positive Economic Effects
An anonymous reader writes "In a study conducted by TNO for the Dutch government the economic effects of filesharing are found to be positive. According to the 146 page report (available for download, but in Dutch) filesharing is good for the prosperity of the Dutch: with filesharing more media are available, even though this costs the media industry some profit. One of the most noticeable conclusions is that downloading and buying are not mutually exclusive: downloaders on average buy just as much music as non-downloaders, but they buy more DVDs and games then people who don't download. They also tend to visit more concerts and buy more merchandise."
This is the evidence to what I've suspected all along - file sharing is [good]
Stated in a somewhat less politician-mocking way, I can definitely get behind this---
It's one thing to have an opinion based on an ideology. It's something very much different to have an opinion based on evidence and reasoning [or science, if you will]. It means you have a good argument for why Your Way should be public policy.
I assume that if politicians listen to science rather than money*, they'd give the general notion of allowing file sharing in some form more thought than otherwise. In fact, one danish politician has done so. She's in a minority party, far out on the left wing, and we have a right-wing government right now...
* My inner pessimist thinks that US politicians listen to US corporate money, and non-US politicians listen to US politicians. He may or may not see reality for what it is, and there are always shades of gray.