News Releases

Professor challenges cost of sharing

Friday, January 22, 2010

BY WAYNE LARSON

University of Kansas School of Business Koch Professor in Business Economics Koleman Strumpf understands that a lot of college students take issue with the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) legal actions against people just like them. The RIAA has been fining people, many of them college-aged students, for file sharing music - that is, downloading music illegally without paying for it - since September 2003. "That's something they need to think about," said Strumpf. "I wish I had a suggestion for them."

One specific college student who is not happy with the RIAA is Boston College graduate student Joel Tenenbaum. He has been fighting a RIAA fine, for downloading 30 songs in 2003, for more than six years. He was recently granted a motion for a retrial in early January 2010 and is currently being ordered to pay $675,000 for his downloading and file sharing infractions.

The RIAA's lawsuits are brought upon file sharers in part because the organization claims file sharing is cutting into music artists' profits. However, Strumpf and his academic partner Felix Oberholzer-Gee, a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, disagree with that accusation to a certain extent.

Strumpf says file sharing music does not necessarily take away from artists' profits because file sharing can positively affect other revenue producing opportunities for artists, such as concert ticket sales. In addition to making more money on performances, he says artists may also see an increase in overall popularity due to file sharing, which can be more gratifying than monetary profits.

"Maybe the economic lens of how people make money is not the right way to look at music," said Strumpf. "Maybe people go into music because they like it."

Whether artists go into the business wanting to make money or earn fame, one thing has been well documented, the RIAA has the artists' backs when it comes to file sharing fines.

Strumpf suggests that people look into the RIAA's fines before they either go to court or pay their fines. However, it will most likely be costly either way. "It's good to fight for something you think is correct," said Strumpf when commenting on fighting RIAA fines. "But it's going to be expensive."