Survey Suggests P2P Users Buy More Music 186
elashish14 writes "A new survey commissioned by Google suggests that music listeners who utilize P2P filesharing services buy 30% more music than non-sharers. The survey also probed users' opinions on enforcement practices. Users were strongly against either throttling or disconnecting users' internet services, but the majority suggested also that search engines should block access. 52% of Americans also said that downloading infringing content should be a punishable offense."
Re:Big Shock (Score:5, Informative)
"Is that a crime?"
It would seem so, since I saw similar survey results clear back in 2000... that is, 13 years ago.
The music industry has known about this. Their campaigns and lawsuits are not about fairness. They are about screwing as many people over for $$$ as possible.
Re:e.g. 52% of Americans believe in thought crime. (Score:5, Informative)
You don't have a choice.
The 99 percent police crackdown proved that the elite are willing and able to use force to silence their critics. Said elite also hold a collective monopoly on the mass media that wanna-be politicians need to get elected.
Finally, the elite use their money to support whichever candidate will kiss their ass, and they threaten to support the opposition if they don't. You either kiss their ass or get sold out to someone who will.
The only way you will get into a federal office is with the backing of the power elite. If they don't like you, they will:
a) Bankroll your opponent's campaign
b) Refuse you air time entirely
c) Violently suppress your wanna-be constituents
The power elite already have the country by the balls and they know it.
Re:Far cry 3 (Score:5, Informative)
I'm glad we have avoided going down that road in Europe. We have strong employment laws that prevent us being treated like cattle, for example, and strong consumer protection laws that prevent companies leeching off us. It isn't perfect but it does for the most part work quite well.
That's why I feel bad for Americans when they talk about such laws taking away their freedom to made deals. The employee and the consumer are almost always the weaker party, easy for the corporation they are trying to strike a bargain with to crush. Sure enough American workers have few rights and few holidays, and often no sick leave*, and consumers get boned all the time.
* Did you know that in Europe if you take holiday time off work and get sick, you can get the holiday time back? Holiday time necessary for a human being's mental wellbeing, employers have to pick up the cost of people being sick (within reason).
Re:Control for interests? (Score:4, Informative)
This is a classic example of the correlation-equals-causation fallacy. While it's being trumpeted by filesharers as proof that it results in people paying for more music and movies, it can just as easily be interpreted as indicating that people who are sufficiently into commercial media that they spend 30% more money on it, also fileshare it. Which would be totally unsurprising, and also a lot less of a challenge to the MAFIAA's argument, because it's possible that these people would've spent 40% more if they didn't have access to stuff without paying. Or maybe not. This survey doesn't tell us.
Don't be like a Creationist, looking for and latching onto any dubious study that seems to support the belief you already hold. Demand – as AC suggested – better studies that control for interest, to show whether or not your religious beliefs are sound or not.