Tainted cartel ‘pirate’ stats
p2pnet.net News:- The music, movie and software cartels claim so-called ‘piracy’ is a Number One problem not only for themselves, but for the world as a whole.
The industries have fabricated a multi-headed monster by turning a simple commercial concept – copyright infringement which in truth, affects only them – into a huge, international conspiracy involving millions of their own innocent customers around the world, and genuine criminal counterfeiters.
So successful are their continuing dis- and misinformation propaganda campaigns that they’ve been able to use them to dragoon entire governments and police forces into acting as industry enforcers.
However, the cartels are also frequently accused of fabricating statistics upon which they base their claims and according to the Havocscope global index of illicit markets, far from being at the top of the pile, movie and music piracy are way, way down the list, ranking 16th and 20th, respectively.
And even those positions are highly questionable given that in both instances, to reach them, Havocscope relies on statistics tainted more than somewhat by the industries concerned.
The movie industry figures are, for instance, based on, “a study released by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA),” bolstered by further stats from the Institute for Policy Innovation which, starting from an MPAA $6.1 billion claim, says the, “total impact of movie piracy in terms of lost jobs and tax revenue costs the US economy $20.5 billion”.
But the latter numbers were also put together with, “some funding from NBC Universal and the MPAA,” says The Washington Post.
And guess where the music statistics come from?
The IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry), owned by EMI, Warner Music, EMI and Vivendi Unversal, the members of the multi-billion-dollar Big Four Organized Music family who singly and collectively claim they’re being “devastated” by their own customers who are, they scream, ‘criminals’ and ‘thieves’.
‘Pirated’ web videos come in at #5 in Havocscope list, but even the figures which put them at the number five spot are, to be kind, considerably less than convincing.
“The exact figure of piracy on web video sites is difficult to determine,” Havocscope admits, going on:
“However, there has been a few reported numbers regarding the issue of copyright violations. The Hollywood Reporter has reported that media and entertainment companies loss an estimated $60 billion due to the uploading and downloading of copyrighted videos on the web.
“A news report in the New York Post regarding YouTube stated industry officials believe ‘roughly 90 percent of the content viewed on its site violates copyright laws’.
“Revver, a web video company that shares its advertising revenue with its users, stated that when it first started accepting videos, 80 percent of its submissions was in violation of copyright laws. In recent months, the level has dropped to 20 percent.
“In addition, Universal Music Group CEO Doug Morris stated at an investors conference that ‘We believe these news businesses are copyright infringers and owe us tens of millions of dollars’.”
(Thanks, Echo Resistance)
Also See:
fabricating statistics – Warner Music in trouble, May 6, 2006
The Washington Post – Hollywood Says Piracy Has Ripple Effect, September 29, 2006
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October 25th, 2006 at 12:33 am
Pardon me, but we (the family music publishing company I administer) have lost, we estimate, millions of dollars because the music record and music publishing industries have robbed us in plain daylight, with the approval and help of the courts.
I wonder, are our numbers included in the RIAA statistics. I do not recall that RIAA has asked us how much RIAA member piracy has cost us.
So, in a way RIAA exagerates and underreports “piracy” losses at the same time.
BTW, why is it that the premise is that money that does not flow to the cartels is money that does not flow somehow into the economy or to a useful purpose, perhaps to pay the medical bills of a life saving operation?
Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com
October 25th, 2006 at 5:12 am
A nation of peers – Iceland’s P2P world record
In a newly released report on Internet use in Iceland [available as PDF @ http://www.statice.is/?PageID=452&itemid=884382cf-c5e6-4565-a8d1-0935ec50de34, the National Statistics Institute reveals that close to a third of the population actively download music, movies, games and software from the Internet. Of those nearly 7 out of 10 use P2P systems. This would be the highest percentage of P2P use per capita in the world.
This should come as no surprise as 86% of the nation have access to the Internet and nearly 85% of the homes have access to high speed connections. Nearly 6% of P2P filesharers are over 65. Only a third more males use P2P systems then women.
DVD and CD sales and personal imports of such goods have at the same time risen considerably and the video rentals and movie attendance is still one of the highest per capita in Europe. The natives believe in standing on the shoulders of their peers.
October 25th, 2006 at 7:14 am
yeah, wow, pirating software was only 7, among players like opium/heroin and cocaine, i don’t find that very positive, it just shows that corporations have billions of reasons to target software piracy
and as far as pirates are concerned, well i’m one of them, i don’t hide it but i don’t hide why i do it either, because i’m fucking lazy, cheap and no stranger to breaking laws, i don’t belive that anything someone else produces and decides to sell should be free, it’s against the producers wishes and that’s that, nothing more to it really, even though i don’t care and will always keep pirating stuff i consider it stealing
October 25th, 2006 at 3:15 pm
Excellent, but don’t expect the lamescream (perfect name for them) media to pay any attention
October 26th, 2006 at 10:22 am
There is one thing I fail to understand.
Why are the “file-save as” stats never mentioned? This is where the big “criminal piracy” (per the cartels, not me) ocurr.
We all know that our browsers have a “file-save as” function. The purpose being to copy entire web pages to our hard disks. Prior to using the “file-save as” function, we “criminals” never do any copyright status research for all that is on the page we are saving. We therefore save text, images, ads, logos, etc. For all I know and care, these objects can all be copyright “protected” and theoretically can only be copied with the owner’s authorization. I have never asked for any such authorization, That is why I am a criminal, “file-save as” copyright infringer and pirate. Guilty as a kid who downloads a song from the web.
Now, each time we use the “file-save as” function without the authorization of the copyright owners, using the cartel’s logic, we “criminals” do not buy the products and two things ocurr, 1. there is a money loss to the owners due to lost sales and the money is lost to the economy and 2. jobs are lost. I admit that by using the “file-save as” function I may not purchase as many book as I may have purchased and that the book publishing industry could be devastated by my criminal behaviour.
Additionally, the saving of web pages for the purpose of creating a dossiers of politicians is a direct threat to politician’s survival. Imagine how many people, mostly Democrats, have a dossier on Bush and at a moments notice can recall and show the news article where Bush proclaimed he won the war on Irak. Or some of the Foley morality speeches.
I know for a fact thet “inducing others to infringe is itself an infringement. The Supreme Court said it. I accept that I have been induced to use the “file-save as” function of my browsers to become a “criminal”, mostly by Microsoft through their Internet Explorer. All my friends and relatives are also “file-save as criminals” that are destroying the economy of many countries by theri frequent use of the “file-save as” function on their browser.
This raises some questions.
Is there any expert out there that can explain why the whosesale “file-save as” activity is tolerated and not even mentioned even though as a criminal piracy activity it is far more prevalent than song file sharing? A wild guess, for each song shared 100 web pages and pdf files are criminally “file-saved as”, not for later viewing, but for permanent dossier bulding.
Is the FBI gathering information so that each time we use “file-save as” function they are notified?
Is Bush planning to end all “file-save as” function on browsers because of it’s possible link to terrorism and/or damage to the economy and threat to politician’s career?
Has the Copyright Office given an opinion?
Do judges and cartel (RIAA, etc) copyright lawyers and executives respect the law by never using the “file-save as” finction?
Has any newpaper reporter ever asked the right questions to the right persons?
Is there any research on the subject?
What is Bill Gates opinion?
Should I turn myself in to the FBI for being a “file-save as” criminal or should I wait until they catch me?
Please note: If there is some humor in this post, it is not as humorous as the cartel ‘pirate’ stats.
Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com
October 26th, 2006 at 3:24 pm
Just how much are they paying you ????
October 27th, 2006 at 6:07 pm
Rafael, great read!
That’s so true.
on digg you would get a thumbs up for that!
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