New Scientist reports on a large-scale study of mp3 downloading versus CD sales:
The most heavily downloaded songs showed no decrease in CD sales as a result of increasing downloads. In fact, albums that sold more than 600,000 copies during this period appeared to sell better when downloaded more heavily.
For these albums each increase of 150 downloads corresponded to another legitimate album sale. The study showed only a slight decline in sales as a result of online trading for the least popular music.
So, people download songs, and if they like them, they buy the CD. Duh.
The RIAA will probably sue them.
In other news, air is confirmed to be a useful factor in respiration.