An anonymous reader writes « In a study conducted by TNO for the Dutch government the economic effects of filesharing are found to be positive.
According to the 146 page report (available for download, but in Dutch) filesharing is good for the prosperity of the Dutch: with filesharing more media are available, even though this costs the media industry some profit. One of the most noticeable conclusions is that downloading and buying are not mutually exclusive: downloaders on average buy just as much music as non-downloaders, but they buy more DVDs and games then people who don’t download. They also tend to visit more concerts and buy more merchandise. »
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/19/1440254