Could Listens deal undermine popular music file-sharing services such as KaZaA and Morpheus?
I believe that a combination of factors will erode usage of the file-sharing services. On the positive side, our getting all the content will give people incentives to switch to an easier-to-use, well-priced service. On the negative side, we’ve begun to see the file-sharing services put everything from popup ads to spyware onto their services. Users are also at risk of computer viruses. More important, you’re starting to see the beginnings of decoy-style efforts, where people are putting false files into the networks that appear to be popular songs but are not. What we’ve found from personal usage and our survey of users is that the P2P [peer-to-peer systems such as Morpheus] networks are starting to get harder to use. It doesn’t mean that if you’re really dedicated and you want to spend time rooting through people’s hard drives, you can’t. Piracy is going to be with us for a long time to come. But a mainstream enthusiast consumer who won’t spend two hours trying to save $5 or $10 will
