Saturday, July 15, 2006

Convenience more important than price

Ed Felten at Freedom To Tinker discusses evidence that people choose to download songs from file-sharing sites, not because they are free of cost, but because they are more convenient and free of Digital Restrictions Management software:

In explaining the popularity of Napster and other file-sharing systems, commentators have often overemphasized the price factor and underestimated convenience. Here we see students given the option of a free subscription service, and passing it up to use another free (though illegal) system, or a for-pay system that is more convenient than the free one.

(Emphasis added.)

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