he correlation, however, should not be interpreted as a causal relationship. People don’t necessarily buy more because they share files, or vice versa. While sampling may be a factor, third variables such as interest in movies and music are likely to drive much of the effect.
The researchers themselves stress that the data nonetheless should act as a warning for the entertainment industries, as it turns out that many file-sharers are also customers.
“The correlation stands out as a warning to industries not to alienate their most important clients from them, by criminalizing their behavior. My slogan is: don’t sue your customers, seduce them,” Joost Poort told TorrentFreak.
The survey also looked at the effect of the court-ordered Pirate Bay blockade in the Netherlands. These results show that among the customers of ISPs who already enforce the block, only a small minority (5.5%) say they have stopped downloading or now download less.
According to Poort, punishing people and censoring the Internet is futile.
“I don’t see much in blocking sites or going after downloaders. It will make people smarter and more convinced about downloading from illegal sources.”
Poort further tells TorrentFreak that he sees no bright future for strict copyright enforcement measures. Instead, the entertainment industry should focus more on improving their legal offerings.
“Get your business model right and realize consumers no longer accept what they had to accept 20 years ago,” Poort says.
The survey backs up this stance as it reveals that music file-sharing is declining in the Netherlands, a result that can be in part attributed to newly launched legal services such as Spotify.
The full results of the Institution for Information Law report are available here in Dutch. An English version is expected to be published in a few weeks.