Discussion of all things related to Public Domain

[tom poe <tompoe AT renonevada.net>]

Hi:  Here's a quote from NARM's response to "a request by House Judiciary 
Committee Chair James Sensenbrenner for information on digital music issues, 
NARM President Pam Horovitz outlined NARM's positions, . . .  "
http://www.narm.com/Content/NavigationMenu/Public_Affairs/sensenbrenner/sensenbrenner.htm
4/15/02
"NARM retailers are cautious about characterizing all copying -- lawful and 
pirate -- as cannibalizing sales of CDs. Recently the assertion was made that 
3.6 billion tracks get downloaded for free every month off the Internet. At 
an average of 15 cuts per CD, this translates to 240 million CD's per month 
or 2.88 billion CDs per year. At an average of $18 listprice per CD, this 
means that the calculated loss to the industry is $51.8 billion per year, or 
almost five times the entire retail market. A broader examination of the 
facts suggests this is unlikely."

"First, only about 7% of all U.S. households have a broadband connection. 
Without a broadband connection, a download can take up to 15 minutes per 
track, which means that this group would have to spend about 18 hours 
downloading the 72 songs a month that represent their share of the 
file-sharing pie. Logic confirms that a disproportionate number of downloads 
are happening where broadband is available (i.e. colleges). Therefore, the 
average number of downloads on college campuses would have to be 
significantly higher than the 864-track average. In contrast, two studies 
show the average number of songs downloaded per month is between 30 to 34, or 
408 files per year -- significantly less than what has been reported by the 
recording industry. The discrepancy in figures may result from the inclusion 
of incomplete downloads in the total figure reported. It is unclear whether 
the recording industry's figures include attempts or only completed downloads 
of songs."

"Second, there is some data that support regarding at least a percentage of 
downloads as sampling rather than cannibalized sales. Several studies 
indicate that the main reason people download is to check out new music 
(Ipsos, Mercer, Jupiter) and that downloaders don't save files of music that 
they find they don't like (Webnoize). In that regard, file-sharing may 
function like radio play as well as like CD purchasing. Millions of listeners 
hear songs repeatedly on the radio but may never buy them. Nevertheless the 
industry recognizes that radio airplay stimulates sales. Similarly, several 
studies indicate that sales activity is stimulated by file-sharing."

Thanks,
Tom Poe
Reno, NV
http://www.studioforrecording.org/
http://www.ibiblio.org/studioforrecording/
http://renotahoe.pm.org/