Digital Business

Abstract

Recent publications have reached conflicting conclusions on whether allowing users to have unlimited free access for downloading music and films is beneficial or not for the content production industry (CPI). Not only do models differ in their conclusions, but there has also not been an agreement on the validity of data on the impact of free access to music and films using P2P on the profits of the CPI and on the demand for CDs and DVDs. We provide in this paper a model that allows to study this question using elementary mathematical tools. In particular, it includes the effect of sampling on the willingness to buy. Preliminary numerical experiments show that benefits are maximized by avoiding any control measures against unauthorized sampling over P2P networks. © 2009 Institute for Computer Sciences, Social-Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering.