China ‘piracy’ clamp-down
p2p news / p2pnet: "About 90 percent of software used in China is pirated, according to researcher IDC and the Business Software Alliance, a trade group funded by Microsoft Corp," says Bloomberg News, going on:
"DVD copies of Hollywood movies sell openly on the streets of Beijing and Shanghai for as little as $1 apiece."
Britain’s The Economist has questioned the veracity of both the BSA and IDC when it comes to statistics involving "piracy".
"It sounds too bad to be true," it said in BSA or just BS, "but, then, it might not be true.
"The association’s figures rely on sample data that may not be representative, assumptions about the average amount of software on PCs and, for some countries, guesses rather than hard data," it says. "Moreover, the figures are presented in an exaggerated way by the BSA and International Data Corporation (IDC), a research firm that conducts the study. They dubiously presume that each piece of software pirated equals a direct loss of revenue to software firms.
“To derive its piracy rate, IDC estimates the average amount of software that is installed on a PC per country, using data from surveys, interviews and other studies. That figure is then reduced by the known quantity of software sold per country-a calculation in which IDC specialises. The result: a (supposed) amount of piracy per country. Multiplying that figure by the revenue from legitimate sales thus yields the retail value of the unpaid-for software. This, IDC and BSA claim, equals the amount of lost revenue.”
Meanwhile, China has closed 76 Web sites and arrested 18 people, "for providing downloads of Hollywood movies, music and other illegal content, responding to pressure from the U.S. and Europe [read Hollywood] for enhanced protection of intellectual property," says Bloomberg.
It has the US movie, publishing, software and recording industries saying illegal reproduction of their goods in China caused losses of $2.4 billion last year and, "The Bush administration is considering complaining to the World Trade Organization, U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman said yesterday," it states.
Would that America’s top administrators, Shotgun Dick Cheney and George W. Bush, would exert the same kind of pressure on US companies that support censorship in China.
Also See:
Bloomberg News – China Shuts 76 Web Sites, Arrests 18 in Online Piracy Crackdown, February 15, 2006
BSA or just BS – New student file sharing horror, August 22, 2005
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February 16th, 2006 at 6:51 am
The BSA is funded by Microsoft, but not exclusively. It is also funded by Adobe, Broderbund, Claris, CA, Symantec & McAfee, among others.
IDC did perform the study in question, but began waving the caution flag when the BSA proceeded to draw questionable conclusions from it by distorting the findings and making unwarranted assumptions through contortive interpretation of the findings. In fact, IDC is rather unhappy with the BSA for the manner is which the study they performed is being used.
To derive their total figure from ‘losses’ due to so-called software ‘piracy’, the BSA assumes that each infringed replica of a software product is tantamount to someone stealing from the company’s cashbox, the full, undiscounted, retail price for the work in question.
This approach does not take into account, shrinkage, breakage, loss leaders. demos, volume licensing agreement, quantity discounts, quid pro quo deals, trade show giveaways, employee theft, returns, customer bankruptcies, spoilage, evaluation copies, unpaid invoices, natural disasters, and “my dog ate the paper with the license key.”
Shutting down so-called ‘piracy’ websites is nothing more that a redressed version of whack-a-mole. The only thing it achieves is giving those in authority the satisfaction of an adreneline rush by pounding the living crap out of something.
It should surprise no one (except technologically challenged, pin-headed, inept bureaucrats) that such approaches are not very effective.
–TurboGeek