Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg
I suggest reading this 2012 pdf: [i]Assessing the Academic Literature Regarding the Impact of Media Piracy on Sales[/i
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Thank you for posting the links to the reports.
The problem I have is that cherry picking the research to support an argument isn't really proof of anything. The conclusions in the first study mentioned are based on statistics.
I'm not
necessarily disputing what was concluded, but at the same time, remain healthily skeptical. They acknowledge there are other studies which disagree with their findings and so these reports aren't really representitive of the whole picture.
The second study also acknowledges serious limitations in their findings with comparisons of newer works not being carried out and the issues with comparing sales of popular, established authors and newer authors, promotional measures etc. Again, it
may be indicative of sales being hurt in certain circumstances, but hardly definitive proof of anything across the board.
The last study relating to movies talks about the closure of Megaupload and its impact on three movie studios. This one distribution network closure is the tip of the iceberg and again, merely takes a snapshot, a tiny sampling of a huge network being used to distribute copyrighted works. This isn't the same market as books anyway and so I'm not sure how it applies to this thread. Nor does it prove that pircacy hurts sales - there could be other factors not included in this study that actually show that piracy can support or increase sales as is the case with some ebook piracy (see study 2 above; "Some less well-known artists may welcome this online piracy as an opportunity to increase reach").
Sorry, I'm still not convinced.