Illegal Online Filesharing, and Information Producers' Strategies

Abstract:     
In the US, Europe and Asia, illegal downloading of content and music has resulted in substantial losses in the entertainment and education industries. The issue involves various policy, technological and economics problems that have not yet been resolved even as internet use continues to grow substantially. The lack of an efficient method of controlling downloads of content is compounded by the fact that owners of content don't know how to price such content; and that inefficient downloads results in sub-optimal pricing of content.

This article introduces optimal strategies for owners and legitimate distributors of digital content - in terms of amount of effort to be allocated to various methods of reducing illegal filesharing.

Keywords: Networks, illegal downloads, bandwidth optimization, security, digital entertainment., file-sharing

Working Paper Series