[stonetools]

Originally Posted by Belfaborac

I linked to that study, as well as others in this thread. Like I said there, every independent study I'm aware of concludes that pirates have either little, none or a positive impact on sales. (Snip)
All studies funded by MPAA, IFPI, etc. of course conclude otherwise, but that is to be expected. Personally I make it a point to ignore all "research" funded by an interested party, whatever the area, as I consider it inherently untrustworthy. Independent research or bust.

NO. I'm sorry but this is dead wrong . Maybe you missed my earlier post, so let me re-post:

The review, The Economics of Music File Sharing – A Literature Overview, by Peter Tschmuck (Microsoft Word version here), examines 22 studies which look at the effects of filesharing on the music industry. Because some are skeptical of industry generated studies, it should be pointed out that all the studies here are independent, academic studies — working papers, academic journal articles, and dissertations. Of these 22 studies, 14 — roughly two-thirds — conclude that unauthorized downloads have a “negative or even highly negative impact” on recorded music sales.2

Studies since Tschmuck’s only confirm these findings. One notable contribution is economist Stan Liebowitz’s study The Metric is the Message: How Much of the Decline in Sound Recording Sales is Due to File-Sharing? released in November 2011. In it, Liebowitz translates the conclusions of existing studies on the effects of unauthorized downloads on recorded music sales into a common metric to answer the question posed in his title.

His conclusion is stunning: “file-sharing has caused the entire decline in sound recording sales that has occurred since the ascendance of Napster.”

LINK

Looks to me like the MAJORITY of academic studies say that unauthorized downloads(piracy + casual sharing) is hurting the recording industry. One could even call it a consensus. Then there is the report of the General Accounting Office of the US government - the same administration that rejected SOPA, so there is no doubt of its even handedness.

Generally, the illicit nature of
counterfeiting and piracy makes estimating the economic impact of IP
infringements extremely difficult, so assumptions must be used to
offset the lack of data. Efforts to estimate losses involve
assumptions such as the rate at which consumers would substitute
counterfeit for legitimate products, which can have enormous impacts
on the resulting estimates. Because of the significant differences in
types of counterfeited and pirated goods and industries involved, no
single method can be used to develop estimates. Each method has
limitations, and most experts observed that it is difficult, if not
impossible, to quantify the economy-wide impacts. Nonetheless,
research in specific industries suggest that the problem is sizeable,
which is of particular concern as many U.S. industries are leaders in
the creation of intellectual property.

The GAO summary is full of qualifiers and criticisms of certain industry studies, but their conclusion is that piracy is a problem.

Whats interesting is that why many, many piracy-friendly posters could ever say stuff like " there's no evidence that piracy is a problem" and "independent studies confirm that piracy causes no harm" .
I believe its confirmation bias . You come to a conclusion that you like ("Piracy-no problem!"), then you look ONLY for confirming evidence ( read only Ars Technica, Torrent Freak, Teleread, and such piracy-friendly blogs). Finally, you take it as a given that your comforting conclusion is undisputed truth, and "objective " observers could only see it your way.
Look , it would be nice if we lived in a world of unicorns and rainbows, where piracy isn't a problem. But here on Earth Prime , it actually is and you don't have to be a servant of the content industries to understand this.