Network Effects: Stan Liebowitz and the MP3 Debate

One of my biggest interests in the last few years has been the ongoing battles between the RIAA and file sharing services such as Napster. An interesting thing that I've noticed is that nobody really seems to have any idea how much file sharing is costing the music industry. If you have any ideas or know of any interesting research I can share with my readers can you please contact me using the feedback form.

A musician by the name of Miriam Rainsford recently wrote an interesting piece called Network Effects: Stan Liebowitz and the MP3 Debate which attempts to debunk the claim that music labels are hemorraging money because of file sharing. I agree with her point that a lot of the music that has come out in the last few years has been awful which has caused many to turn off their radios and become less interested in music. I certainly fall into that category. At the same time, you would have to think that the ability to obtain million of songs at almost no cost would have to be hurting the music industry.

Important Links

• To learn more about the battle between file sharing and the RIAA see my subject page "Property Rights, File Sharing and MP3s ".