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from Digital Music News article

File-sharing is bad for recording sales, but is it better for society? Such questions would be quickly dismissed at conferences like Midem, though the issue was recently investigated by the Dutch government. Specifically, the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs commissioned research group TNO to delve into the complicated matter, and form some conclusions. ArsTechnica helped to translate the report, issued in Dutch.

File-swapping has been the focus of much research, and many of the TNO conclusions were unsurprising. According to the report, a small percentage of file-swappers actually purchase music, and unpaid downloads outranked paid downloads by a ratio of 7.5 to 1 (across digital and physical formats). The report also asserted that file-sharing greatly increases the rate of music sampling, and therefore, increases appetite and sometimes leads to subsequent purchases.

In reality, file-swapping is mostly a free-for-all. But the report asserted that the broader impact on society was positive, based on the argument that consumers gain more than what labels and other stakeholders lose. The report also rebuffs the claim that file-sharing leads to lost sales at a one-to-one ratio, a method sometimes used by the content industry to calculate overall piracy losses.

Story by news analyst Alexandra Osorio.
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