Accept no substitutes

Day: January 23, 2006

Fredmania – Facebook and Fred on Carolina Week

I just got back from a great talk by Koleman Strumpf at Duke Law’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain. He’s added movie trading to his file-sharing study so I got to hear a lot of new news. Basically, trading movies is now worse economically than trading music (at the current quality levels at least).
But when I got back, Fred and a guy from Carolina Week had taken over my office. Except for my shabby mess, it looked like a TV studio. Fred’ll be on later in the week talking about FaceBook and social networking.

2 Mini Schnauzers need a good home

UPDATE: These dogs found a great home last night (01/25/06). They no longer need to be adopted.

A collegue writes seeking a home for older mini-schnauzers. Her note below:

One of our emeritus faculty members entered assisted living on December 19th. As part of her agreement to go, my mother and I said we would take her two little schnauzers, Strudel and Hugo. They are cute and starting to grow on us but mother, who is 83, and I already have two very large standard poodles. No matter what we try the four dogs do not seem to like each other. Well, that’s putting it very gently. It is just too much for us to keep all the dogs apart and I need to find Strudel and Hugo a new home or homes. We tried this for a month put sadly have failed.

I am in desperate need to find a foster home. I say foster because the original owner will pay for all food, health care, and all other expenses related to the dogs for as long as they live. They have had good health care and all their shots, etc. Strudel will be 12 in May and Hugo will be 11. While they could live another five years, being little dogs, it is unlikely if I have to take them to Schnauzer rescue that anyone will really want them. It is so sad to be old and unwanted.

These two can go together or separately to a home where there are no other dogs (well, Hugo could go anywhere, I think, but Strudel needs to be alone or with Hugo) and someone can love them in their elderly years. I am afraid they are not feeling very loved in the house with the monster poodles. They are house trained, do not chew furniture or the like, come when called, and enjoy patting and cuddling – especially Strudel! I dearly wish I could keep them. I feel terrible, but we just don’t seem to be making this work. If anyone is out there who would like a little companion who is just looking for love and affection this is your cost-free chance.

Contact Helen Tibbo at tibbo AT ils.unc.edu or leave a comment here.

Strumpf at Duke: Economic effects of P2P file sharing

Koleman Strumpf will be speaking at Duke on “The Economic effects of P2P file sharing.” Amazing that I have to go to Duke to hear Koleman speak. Jennifer Jenkins of the Center for the Study of the Public Domain writes:

In 2004, Professor Koleman Strumpf co-authored an empirical study concluding that downloading has no statistically significant effect on record sales, and can even boost them. The study was called everything from “heretical” to “absolutely astounding” to “incomprehensible” (by an industry spokesperson). Come hear Professor Strumpf discuss his continuing work on the economic effects of file sharing at our first Information Ecology lecture of 2006. It will take place on Monday, January 23, at 12:15pm. Details are below.

Professor Koleman Strumpf of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

“The Effect of File Sharing on the Sale of Entertainment Products: The Case of Recorded Music and Movies”

Date: 1/23/06
Time: 12:15 p.m.
Location: Duke Law School, Room 3041
Lunch will be served

For industries ranging from software to pharmaceuticals and entertainment, there is an intense debate about the level of protection for intellectual property that is necessary to ensure innovation. In the case of digital information goods, web-based technologies provide a natural crucible to assess the implications of reduced protection because these technologies have drastically lowered the cost of copying information. This talk will discuss empirical evidence of the crowd-out effect of file sharing on entertainment products such as music and movies.

Professor Koleman Strumpf’s research interests are in applied microeconomics with an emphasis on policy applications. His current work focuses on P2P file sharing, prediction markets (such as political wagering markets or sports betting), and the economics of criminal behavior in illegal sports bookmaking. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Financial Times, Science, Economist, Business Week, Rolling Stone, and Variety. He has appeared on ABC News, Nightline, CNN, CNBC, C-Span, NPR, and Bloomberg Radio.

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