Lost and found: media sales

Author

Cherry, S.M.

Volume

39

Issue

7

fYear

2002

fDate

7/1/2002 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

45

Lastpage

45

Abstract

Does file-sharing of copyrighted material harm sales today? The movie, music and book trade associations say it does, but for each form of entertainment, a growing body of evidence suggests otherwise-and not all of the evidence is anecdotal. In a study of about 3,000 individuals, research firm Jupiter Media Metrix Inc. found that "experienced file-sharers are more likely to actually increase the amount of money they spend on CDs." 34% said they spent more than before on music, twice as many as said they spent less (15%). One ongoing real-life experiment is the Baen Free Library. The novels in this Web-based collection are made available at no charge and in their entirety by science fiction publisher Baen Books. It seems that a free online copy can boost sales of movies, records and books

Keywords

copyright; digital libraries; electronic commerce; electronic publishing; entertainment; information resources; leisure industry; marketing; sales management; Baen Books; Baen Free Library; Jupiter Media Metrix; Web-based book collection; book trade; copyrighted material; entertainment; file-sharing; free online copying; media sales; movie trade; music trade; online novels; science fiction publisher; Books; Cloning; Digital relays; IP networks; Internet; Jupiter; Libraries; Lifting equipment; Marketing and sales; Motion pictures;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Spectrum, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9235

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/MSPEC.2002.1015460

Filename

1015460