A new report published by the Canadian government concludes that there is no palpable connection between the illegal sharing of music online and the sale of CDs, positively or negatively.
The report, written by University Of Western Ontario professors Birgitte Andersen and Marion Frenz, says: "We are unable to find direct evidence that P2P file-sharing either increases or decreases CD purchases in Canada. That is, in our analysis of the whole Canadian population we are unable to find any relationship between the number of P2P music tracks that were downloaded and the number of CD purchases".
The report conflicts with the viewpoint of the Canadian Recording Industry Association, and their counterparts elsewhere, who claim that widespread P2P filesharing is a key factor in the decline of CD sales. However, the report also said that there was no proof of claims made by those active in the P2P community that music fans who access music via filesharing are more likely to then go on to buy CDs