Demand and Supply-side Dynamics of Piracy Diffusion in P2P Networks

Digital piracy, the sharing files of music on peer-to-peer (P2P) networks has been cited as the key threat to the music industry by distorting promoting plans of albums (Billboard.biz, 2009). To combat widespread digital piracy on file-sharing networks, the content industries have employed diverse anti-piracy strategies including pollution technologies and stronger copyright legislation for music CDs, DVDs, games, etc. For instance, companies such as Overpeer, deliberately deteriorate song file dispersion by spoofing or corrupting files. Organizations such as the RIAA aim to reduce the potential impact of so-called pre-release piracy, where content on P2P networks becomes available before the official launch date. Much effort by the music and film industry is directed to achieve a supply and demand reduction through technology and legal means. Legal and monitoring activities against digital piracy have focused on the deterioration of the supply side. Technologies such as spoofing or corrupting files decay the supply level of desired content. Legislation also mostly aims at penalizing file uploaders instead of file downloaders. However, there is little understanding in how supply and demand are formed in P2P networks. Specifically, there is little understanding whether monitoring and legal efforts to curb piracy in P2P networks is effective.