Sandboxing

Uh oh

Looks like tumblr doesn’t accept certain mathematical notation.
I’ll try to fix this!

Part 1: The research proposal

Problem

             With the occurrence of online piracy, many industries are being threatened by an increasing amount of their products being acquired at either a lower price or for free causing these industries to retaliate forcing distribution websites to terminate operations. This paper will discuss the effects that these pirated goods have on the sales and rentals of media products such as music and movies. Special attention will be paid to the widespread use of the internet as a medium of distribution for such pirated goods due to the ease of usage. Analysis will mainly be based off of a simple supply and demand comparison where legitimate versions of products can be considered with a price greater than equilibrium and pirated versions with price at equilibrium. The analysis may also look at the possibility of pirated products being inferior goods as such that as income increases, consumers will substitute these pirate products for the normal good, the genuine version.

Literature Review

            As piracy is becoming an important part of international markets, there have been several studies into the effects of piracy. One study looks into the effect of the internet’s growth and the increased incidence of piracy, however it also looks into the effects of the internet as a medium of advertising to increase the sales of DVDs (Smith, Telang (2010)). Another study looks into the global occurrences and demand for goods and whether this effects piracy (Bosworth, Yang (2002)).

Expected Research Design

            As datasets for specific incidences of piracy may be difficult to retrieve, data will relate to various countries’ GDP per capita as well as reported incidences of piracy in each country. This will be an attempt to answer the inferior goods question and whether a lower GDP per capita will result in a higher incidence of piracy. A regression analysis will be the most appropriate empirical method, with possible dependant variables being the influence of peer-to-peer sharing programs such as Napster or bit torrent.

References

Smith, Michael D., and Rahul Telang. “Piracy or promotion? The impact of broadband Internet penetration on DVD sales.” Information Economics and Policy. 22. (2010): 289-98.

Bosworth, Derek, and Yang, Deli. 2002 “Economics and Management of Global Counterfeiting”

Well, here goes!

I said (a WHILE back) that I’d be “self-publishing” my research paper.
Prepare for an oncoming WALL OF TEXT about economics, in particular piracy.

You WILL notice that my topic changes as I find more/different information to shape the various parts together.

Definitely one of the most difficult things I had to do/write in my university career. Also the most enjoyable. Nothing feels better than a a regression coming together and confirmation of your hypothesis. Or rather, failure to reject your hypothesis (haha! It’s funny because you’re not allowed to “accept” your hypothesis… keener humour?)

Parts:
1. Proposal
2. Hypothesis Report
3. Empirical Report
4. Presentation (ppt slides)

Oh did I mention that presenting it all was probably the MOST fun part?
Yes. I like presenting. Bee tee dubs.