We already spent a bunch of time debunking many of the claims in the IFPI’s new “Piracy Bad!!!!” report. But the folks over at TorrentFreak have dug up a bit more info. Apparently the research for the report was put together by Forrester, and the underlying research showed that when it comes to the growth in digital music sales, those who partake of unauthorized file sharing are also the best customers of authorized digital music. No, this is not saying that file sharing automatically leads people to buy, or that all file sharers buy. Obviously, that’s not the case. But it does suggest that demonizing those people might not be the smartest thing.
But the IFPI report doesn’t mention any of that. Instead, it claims that people file share for one reason and one reason alone: because it’s free. If that were the case, though, then why would any of those who partake also buy? And why would they be the industry’s best customers for digital sales? It seems like the IFPI should be embracing them to see how it can get them to choose to buy more — but instead, it totally ignores what its own researchers found, insists that it’s just because content is free, and then spends most of the report demonizing its best customers and asking governments of the world to kick those people offline.
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