Music industry smears file-sharing research

By Cory Doctorow at 6:57 am Wednesday, Apr 14

Koleman Strumpf, the co-author of the first-ever empirical study on the impact of file-sharing on record sales, has found himself on the receiving end of a withering attack from the music industry who argue that their bought-and-paid-for, non-empirical "research" trumps his analysis, attacking his conclusions.

Two years ago, Strumpf and Oberholzer-Gee set out to research the matter. Strumpf's interest was piqued by the Napster trial, where the recording industry alleged copyright violations that led to the demise of the pioneering Web site in 2001. In the testimony, experts argued that music downloads had to be the cause of slumping sales.

Strumpf read the studies they cited. They were horrible, he said.

"I was like, 'Boy, this is pretty amazing,' " said Strumpf, a Philadelphia native. "Nobody has done a serious study."

Link (Thanks, Thomas!)