US Government Admits Most Piracy Studies Are Nonsense
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 14th Apr 2010 11:50 UTC
Legal A major setback for those that claim piracy is having an adverse affect on the US economy: the US Government Accountability Office, who was tasked with reviewing the efforts to find out what, if any, impact piracy has on the US economy, has concluded that all of these studies - all of them - are bogus. Better yet - the GAO even goes as far as to say that piracy may have a positive effect on the economy.
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Yeah, I don't know about that
by jack_perry on Wed 14th Apr 2010 14:28 UTC
jack_perry
Member since:
2005-07-06

Furthermore, the GOA even concludes that piracy may have a positive effect on the economy, for instance because it leaves consumers with more money to spend elsewhere.

This hasn't worked too well in many markets. A lot of Amiga developers, for example, were pretty open about their soreness at what piracy was doing to them: driving them out of the Amiga market.

It also strikes me that "piracy" here is used very, very broadly. It's one thing to share an electronic document with someone so that they can borrow it temporarily; I wouldn't call that piracy (although some extremists might).

However, when you copy and sell such a document, as goes on in many places, that's clearly piracy--and although one might spin this as benefiting the larger economy because there is more "economic activity", it remains theft, and will have negative effects.

Reply Score: 1

Tuishimi Member since:
2005-07-06

Yeah, but Amiga users were always a shifty lot!

Reply Parent Score: 3

jabbotts Member since:
2007-09-06

"when you copy and sell "...

That's the benchmark for me also; Piracy involves selling unlicensed duplications not simply infringing for personal use. What RIAA calls piracy is far more broad and meant to be so for marketing spin.

Reply Parent Score: 2

marafaka Member since:
2006-01-03

jack_perry: "I wouldn't call that piracy"

It doesn't matter what anybody calls piracy as it is not a matter of oppinion but a matter of risk and profit. It is about breaking the agreements that aren't ours in the first place and everybody knows that it mostly works.

This certanly breaks some business schemes but every regulation does it too. But it doesn't mean anything as there are always ways around it.

As an Amiga developer I was always told "nahnah, somebody is selling your goods there for nahnah and so" but as long as I got the amount of cash I liked it was allright. And I wouldn't use the legal weaponry against one of my clients anyway. Maybe if I was a little braindamaged and got out of other ideas ;)

Reply Parent Score: 2