Survey Says -- Downloads Up or Downloads Down?

Conflicting data has emerged in the past few weeks about the rate of music downloading since the Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) lawsuits against individual users began in September.  A recent study from the Pew Internet and American Life Project reported a decrease in downloading since September, but two other reports – one by BayTSP, an organization in Silicon Valley, and another by Big Champagne in Los Angeles – found vastly different results.  Big Champagne even reported a 35% increase in P2P downloading from 2002 to 2003.  Check out John Palfrey’s remarks on the murky data in a recent report in Business Week, and read another story by the Associated Press.