Impact of Legal Threats on Online Music Sharing Activity: An Analysis of Music Industry Legal Actions

The music industry has repeatedly expressed,concerns,over potentially devastating impacts of online music sharing. Initial attempts to control online file sharing have been primarily through,consumer,education and legal action against the operators of networks,that facilitated file sharing. Recent legal action against individual file sharers marked,an unprecedented,shift in the industry’s strategy. The focus now,is on well- publicized legal threats and,actions on a relatively small group,of individuals to discourage overall music,file sharing. To determine,the resulting impact of these legal threats, we passively tracked online file-sharing behavior of over 2,000 individuals. We found,that individuals who,share a substantial number,of music,files react to legal threats differently from those who share a lesser number of files. Importantly, our analysis indicates that even,after these legal threats and,the resulting lowered levels of file sharing, the availability of music files on these networks remains substantial.