Reel Piracy: Take Two
A month ago I posted about a new working paper that I finished with Joel Waldfogel. The paper is entitled “Reel Piracy: The Effect of Online Film Piracy on International Box Office Sales“.
It seems that a number of online blogs have picked up on a small portion of the paper that employs a weaker methodology than the main section of the paper, citing our study as evidence that piracy does not displace sales in the U.S. box office. It even seems to have picked up some press as a result.
We feel as if our findings are being misinterpreted, or at least a bit misrepresented. Here is my coauthor’s blog post about the issue at Digitopoly.
**Update – Looks like responsible reporters actually read the study and got it right. Here’s the article in the Wall Street Journal - http://blogs.wsj.com/ideas-market/2012/02/16/spinning-the-online-piracy-debate/tab/comments/.
And here’s the article in the LA Times - http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2012/02/piracy-reduces-foreign-box-office-receipts-7-study-says.html
