I interrupt my travels today to attend a conference in Vienna on the music business, specifically on file-sharing, new technologies, and the adaptation of intellectual property law to these new technologies.
Background: a few years ago, Felix Oberhauzer-Gee et al published an article in the Journal of Political Economy asserting that file-sharing has had no impact on the music business. On the face of it, this conclusion seems worse than implausible. Beyond the implausibility, it turns out that their research had many errors, mistakes, and misrepresentations. These problems were made clear by Stan Liebowitz. Both Oberhauzer-Gee and Liebowitz are here at the conference. This should be fun.
Opening remarks are going on now. The first presentation is by Peter Tshmuck, conference organizer, who will provide a review of literature concerning music file-sharing. How he presents this should also provide some insight into his own views on the O-G - L controversy.