The latest study making the rounds on this (see all 52 pages at http://www.unc.edu/~cigar/papers/Fil..._March2004.pdf )is by Felix Oberholzer of the Harvard Business School and Koleman Strumpf of UNC Chapel Hill.

As Glenn Reynolds writes "Their conclusion: "Downloads have an effect on sales which is statistically indistinguishable from zero." Or again, "even in the most pessimistic specification, five thousand downloads are needed to displace a single album sale."

This economic study confirms what many have suspected for a long time. The effects of p2p sharing on the demand for a product are many. Some are negative. Free content can cannibalize proprietary content. Some are positive. Free content can spur demand for that, or related content...."

even though I don't download files (simply because I do not have the inclination) that is an interesting fact to find out http://www.corfid.com/ubb/biggrin.gif http://www.corfid.com/ubb/biggrin.gif http://www.corfid.com/ubb/biggrin.gif http://www.corfid.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

Here's a link to The Toronto Star article today that further explores the judge's decision in Canada re: downloading -
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Con...d=968332188492