Harvard Study Says Weak Copyright Benefits Society

An anonymous reader writes "Michael Geist summarizes an important new study on file sharing from economists Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Koleman Strumpf. The Harvard Business School working paper finds that given the increase in artistic production along with the greater public access conclude that 'weaker copyright protection, it seems, has benefited society.' The authors point out that file sharing may not result in reduced incentives to create if the willingness to pay for 'complements' such as concerts or author speaking tours increases."

Re:Media Frenzy

[Joce640k]

You want media companies to run stories on how copyright might be bad?

Email me privately, I've got an offer you'll be interested in.

Re:Err..

[grenthar]

Carve a statue. Nobody forced you to create with a medium that can be digitally reproduced.

Re:Pointless

[Opportunist]

Really? And here I was under the impression that "politics" stems from "poly" meaning many, and "ticks" meaning "little blood sucking pests".

Amusing in the context of the paper

[TheP4st]

From the first page of the of the paper

This working paper is distributed for purposes of comment and discussion only. It may not be reproduced without permission of the copyright holder.

Re:So what?

[Crazyswedishguy]

I've scanned your signed picture and posted it on bittorrent. Enjoy!

Re:No, YOU'RE the retard.

[vivaelamor]

Holy crap, you're using a comparison with the oil industry to strengthen your argument for copyright? That's kinda like saying murder is OK because we have wars.