Pirated Music study suggests your downloading guilt may be unnecessary
A pirated music study sheds some light on the dark downloading domain.
The best part about it is that the $430 000 study was ordered by the European Commission in 2013.
It was carried out by an organization in the Netherlands called Ecorys, and they found that our guilt can be wiped clean, or at least diminished.
The study was to reveal how piracy disturbs sales of media, including music, in the EU.
I don’t think they expected the results they received because naturally, as any political platform would do, they kept the results hidden from the public.
That is, until a freedom of information request was requested by EU parliamentarian Julia Reda in July.
Reda-bout it!
Reda, truth exposer that she is, wrote about the results in her blog. “With the exception of recently-released blockbusters, there is no evidence to support the idea that online copyright infringement displaces sales.”
Naturally the EU chose to only publicize certain data pertaining to the negative impact piracy has on blockbuster movies as 10 downloads amount to 4 less cinema visits.
Reda goes on to observe how the EU has made an effort to try forcing the ISPs to install filters to spy on content uploaded by users.
Only publicizing the negative effects gives them justification to do so.
“This seems to substantiate suspicion that the European Commission was hiding the study on purpose, and cherry-picked the results they wanted to publish, by choosing only the results which supported their political agenda towards stricter copyright rules,” writes EDRi.
Shortly after Reda’s request of the findings, the EU released the study to the public, perhaps knowing how much worse it would look coming from someone like Reda.
All in all, the Pirated Music study reveals that piracy doesn’t have as negative an influence on the entertainment industry as claimed.
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