WASHINGTON (Billboard) - The Recording Industry Assn. of America is questioning the results of a recent academic study on illegal downloading.

Amy Weiss, RIAA senior VP of communications, calls the Oberholzer-Strumpf study's results, released March 30, "counterintuitive." The study appears to absolve illegal downloaders of negatively impacting the music business.

Weiss also says the study is "anomalous" in that it contradicts the findings of five other studies of P2P activity conducted in 2002-03. All suggested file sharing as a major element in the decline of industry sales.

The new study, conducted by two professors at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, is steeped in complex statistical equations.

"We look forward to what other academics will have to say about since it has not yet been peer-reviewed or published in a journal," Weiss writes. "We also look forward to understanding what the authors actually did in the study, since the text of the analysis is incomprehensible to the layman."

The RIAA also says the study is skewed because the team used the fourth quarter of 2002 as a basis for its findings.

"It is not possible to examine record sales and downloading for 17 weeks and determine whether or not downloading has harmed sales over the last three years," Weiss writes.

The study team says that a full explanation for the recent decline in record sales is "beyond the scope of this analysis," but then posits "several plausible" reasons, without providing statistical backup.

It suggests "poor macroeconomic conditions"; a reduced number of album releases; growing competition from other forms of entertainment; a reduction in music variety due to radio consolidation; the cost of independent promoter fees to gain airplay; "and possibly a consumer backlash against record industry tactics."

Russ Crupnick, president of NPD Music, says several studies by his group, using multiple methodologies, have produced opposite conclusions.

"Everything we've looked at here sharply disagrees with the results" of the Oberholzer-Strumpf study, Crupnick says. A recent NPD study shows a 29% decline in units sold in 2003 due to P2P downloading.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry also criticized the Oberholzer-Strumpf study.

Reuters/Billboard