Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[Paul Jones <pjones AT metalab.unc.edu>]

Professor Koleman Strumpf of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

"The Effect of File Sharing on the Sale of Entertainment Products: The Case of 
Recorded Music and Movies"

Date: Monday, 1/23/06
Time: 12:15 p.m.
Location: Duke Law School, Room 3041
Lunch will be served

For industries ranging from software to pharmaceuticals and entertainment, 
there is an intense debate about the level of protection for intellectual 
property that is necessary to ensure innovation. In the case of digital 
information goods, web-based technologies provide a natural crucible to assess 
the implications of reduced protection because these technologies have 
drastically lowered the cost of copying information. This talk will discuss 
empirical evidence of the crowd-out effect of file sharing on entertainment 
products such as music and movies.

Professor Koleman Strumpf's research interests are in applied microeconomics 
with an emphasis on policy applications. His current work focuses on P2P file 
sharing, prediction markets (such as political wagering markets or sports 
betting), and the economics of criminal behavior in illegal sports bookmaking. 
His work has been featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, 
Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Financial Times, Science, 
Economist, Business Week, Rolling Stone, and Variety. He has appeared on ABC 
News, Nightline, CNN, CNBC, C-Span, NPR, and Bloomberg Radio.

This lecture is open to all.  Boxed lunches will be available for the first 
eighty people who come to the lecture.