Piracy statistics criticized
p2pnet.net News:- The propensity of the entertainment and software cartels to regularly and routinely float dodgy figures to bolster equally questionable claims that so-called copyright ‘crimes’ of one kind or another are ruining not only them and their workers, but also national economies, is hardly news.
But now an Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) draft says some industry research is “self-serving hyperbole,” and warns that exaggerated statistics are being used to get government attention, says The Australian.
The conglomerates and their lobbyists co-opt local and mainstream media to broadcast specious statistics which in turn persuade police, governments, school staffs and boy scout associations, all wholly funded by taxpayers around the world, to engage in purely commercial actions ultimately aimed at getting administrations to repeal or re-write copyright laws to meet industry desires.
They’ve been getting away with it for decades, largely protected by the fact few people beyond expert analysts were able to access world data banks to realistically plumb the statistical depths to counter industry claims.
But the Net has changed all that. Today, anyone with a computer can tap previously hard-to-find information and then publicize his or her findings; and this, in turn, means a body of material compiled by both professionals and amateurs is slowly being assembled.
In July, p2pnet contributor Sally Hawkins wrote the Australian government was funding research into the nature, impact and extent of criminal copyright infringement.
“To be undertaken by the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC), the research will identify options for the Federal Government’s response to piracy and counterfeiting in the future,” she said, going on:
“There’s little doubt mass media corporations, record labels and movie studios will be making submissions to the AIC on the changes ‘needed’ to protect their dying business models. It’s essential that anyone on the users’ rights side also make contributions to ensure the research reflects wishes and concerns of ALL stakeholders.
“Interested parties have until August 4, 2006, to contact Alex Malik …”
That was then and this is now and the AIC report prepared by Malik, who’s also a p2pnet contributor, says the exaggerated statistics demonstrate supposed higher levels of piracy and counterfeiting which, “would invariably result in additional federal government resources being diverted to enforcement activities,” a matter, “requiring urgent attention.”.
Alarmed, perhaps, by the fact the report has gone public, the AIC says it’s an “early draft” written by “an external consultant,” with senior AIC staff saying the conclusions were “not accurate,” continues The Australian.
It also quotes senior criminologist Russell Smith as saying the institute was still working on the report, stating the draft is, “hyperbolic and overblown. It was a very early draft written by a consultant, and we would want a chance to revise it.”
The report alleges the music industry wasn’t able to explain, “how it came to its statistics on piracy,” says the story.
Record companies claim 10 per cent of sound recordings are pirated but, “It is inappropriate for courts and policy-makers to accept at face value currently unsubstantiated statistics,” the report says. “Either these statistics must be withdrawn, or the purveyors of these statistics must supply valid and transparent substantiation.”
“Music Industry Piracy Investigations manager Sabiene Heindl said the organisation’s statistics were collected from local data, but the piracy figure itself was drawn up by the International Federation of Phonographic Industries [IFPI], and was accurate,” says The Australian, adding.
“Business Software Association of Australia chairman Jim Macnamara said his organisation’s piracy figures were extrapolations, but had been confirmed by other studies.
However, a recent p2pnet story points out the IFPI is a vested interest Big Four Organized Music unit, and BSA figures have been seriously called into question by The Economist.
Also See:
The Australian – Piracy figures ‘beefed up by music industry’, November 7, 2006
criminal copyright infringement – Oz Criminal Copyright Research, July 24, 2006
recent p2pnet story – Tainted cartel ‘pirate’ stats, October 24, 2006
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November 8th, 2006 at 11:07 pm
I guess if RIAA kept the statistics when the importation of slaves started in the Americas they would have used an argument identical to the one they use today, that free slave labor was devastating the economy by eliminating the jobs of the white workers. The opposite was true, regardless of how terrible slavery was.
If free slave labor was good, so must be free music files.