New Piracy Loss Estimate

An anonymous reader writes "WSJ reports on a new MPAA estimate losses due to piracy. "The study, by LEK Consulting LLC, was completed last year, and people familiar with it say it reached a startling conclusion: U.S. movie studios are losing about $6.1 billion annually in global wholesale revenue to piracy, about 75% more than previous estimated losses of $3.5 billion in hard goods. On top of that, losses are coming not only from lost ticket sales, but from DVD sales that have been Hollywood's cash cow in recent years."

Gee, They put the lotto on TV...

[ackthpt]

Why don't they show the RIAA and MPAA giving the Big Spin, themselves?

bzzzzzzzzz-tik-tik-tik-tik-tik-tik
"Come on 6.1 billion! Come on 6.1 billion!"
tikka-tikka-tikka-tik-tok-tok "Come on 6.1 billion! YAAAAAYYYYYYY!!!! We lost 6.1 billion!!! Wheeee!!! Huzzah!!"

"Now we cut to live footage of those most responsible for the losses incurred by the RIAA and MPAA conducting a clandestine summit in a treehouse on the outskirts of Wooster, Massachusetts!"

"Ahoy, ye bloomin' yeller scoundrel!"
"Avast, ye bloomin' scupper-faced seadog!"
"Arr, ye great yeller galoot!"
"Avast, ye scurvy bilge-spewin' lubber!"
"Ahoy, ye poxy waterlogged galoot!"
"Avast, ye great bilge-spewin' picaroon!"
"Arr, ye bloomin' brine-swiggin' lubber!"
...

It sure beats the boring truth, doesn't it?

Excellent!

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously, this crap is getting ridiculous. I find myself cheering for bigger losses.

Lies, damn lies, and (corprate) statistics

[9mm Censor]

In other news I had a friend do a study for me (I paid him a pizza, a bag of dorritos and a case of coke) and he conculded, that I paid too much for Internet, my Internet was not fast enough, I was overcharged for movies and music, and I paid too much taxes.

Re:Gee, They put the lotto on TV...

[ackthpt]

What if DVDs aren't worth owning and theaters are inconvenient? How are we supposed to support the movie industry then?

Donations through PayPal?

The truth about the RIAA revealed

[mattjb0010]

By toothpaste for dinner [toothpastefordinner.com]

Article categorization.

[ndsbriand]

I heard that there are three types of reports from the MPAA: lies, damn lies, and statistics.

I can see it now...

[brian0918]

"I don't even understand why they bother using real numbers in these studies."

I can see it now...

The MPAA reports on a startling new study indicating that over 63 trillion gigawatts of elephants are being harvested anually as a result of DVD piracy. The study corrected for factors such as yellow, and the tootsie roll center of a Tootsie Pop, providing the first clear evidence of a connection between movie downlaods and the number 7.

Playground games.

[Gideon Fubar]

Seems like the MPAA & the RIAA are having a competition..

they're standing on a rotating platform, trying to see who can spin the fastest.

Re:No surprise but the MPAA is lying

[Afecks]

That reminds me of when I had a meeting with Santa Claus and his head elf. He full blank told me that you are full of shit. However, I wasn't really shocked by that statement. He said that you will be getting coal next year.

I lost $2.7 billion last year

[NoSuchGuy]

Everybody copies my program, nobody pays me!

I lost $2.7 billion last year. Oh on Thursday, I have a loss of $5.4 billion. On Saturdays and Sunday I have a discount.

I am the owner of 'Hello World'!

Re:Excellent!

[Anonymous Coward]

short answer: no

long answer: nope

Stats from "person familiar with matter"

[deesine]

tfa:

"Last year, according to a person familiar with the matter, copies of movies downloaded or received from people who had downloaded them cost the studios $447 million in the U.S., whereas copies stemming from professional bootleggers cost the studios $335 million."

We don't know his name. We don't know his position. But at least he's familiar with the matter!

Re:This, from the organization

[Sheetrock]

Isn't this the industry that turned the concept of "net profit" into a running joke?

Re:Gee, They put the lotto on TV...

[Reverend528]

The internet is everywhere. Changing physical locations won't stop internet piracy.

Yes, but if they refuse to sell movies in the US, then any movies downloaded in that region can't possibly be considered a lost sale, thus they won't be losing a billion dollars are year to the pirates. It makes perfect sense if you think about it.

Re:Excellent!

[pembo13]

Why would they lie?

Re:I can see it now...

[Zordak]

Man, you totally missed the point. He's complaining about them using REAL numbers for this study.

The actual report--The MPAA reports on a startling new study indicating that over 63e12 + 42j gigawatts of elephants are being harvested annually as a result of DVD piracy . . . providing the first clear evidence of a connection between movie downloads and the number -7 * exp(j*pi).

Re:Gee, They put the lotto on TV...

[shoptroll]

Huh. That would explain the sudden increase in the amount of pirate flags being raised on my way to work...

Given from where they pull the numbers...

[Ungrounded Lightning]

Without an independent audit of their claims, is there any reason at all that anybody should be taking these numbers seriously?

Of course not.

They pull these numbers from their a**holes.

So now they hired some bigger a**holes and were able to pull out bigger numbers.

Re:Gee, They put the lotto on TV...

[Siffy]

I tagged it as globalwarming. Hopefully with the piracy numbers up an unexpected 75% more we'll have a less active hurricane season in '06.

What about The Aliens?

[babbling]

Little do they know, they are losing $588.34 trillion dollars a day by not selling to the Xiggawathians on planet Rofuble.

I have a little more knowledge about what they might need to tap this huge market on planet Rofuble, but I need to do some further research on the technology. If they could just grant me $2 billion for research, I feel that we would be in a position to approach the King of Rofuble within the next few years. While that figure may startle you, rest assured it's a small price to pay for such a huge market!

Re:This, from the organization

[darkain]

And then Apple stepped in and turn that term, (inter)net profits, into a reality with the iTunes Music Store.

Re:Piracy saves movie industry money...

[klang]

The State should sue the movie studios for this loss in income taxes ..

Re:Stats from "person familiar with matter"

[Meagermanx]

Remember the old Scrooge McDuck comic books, where the Beagle Boys would dig a hole to his safe, and then slowly steal all his gold coins, until he noticed and sent Huey, Dewey and Louie to kick their asses?

This is like that, but with less ducks.

Not buying a corporation's product is the same as stealing. If they're spending money to make it, you should be spending money to consume it. That's just common sense.

Overestimated costs

[zoeblade]

2 Trillion US Dollars... [is] in short more important than anything.

Not quite, it's second to someone's phone bill [google.com].

bah

[smash]

They're assuming people would pay money for the stuff they copy if it was unavailable as warez.

Shit, i can't be arsed *copying* most of the crap out there, let along watching it or heaven forbid, having to pay for it.

I have no trouble paying for media, however when the average new release is about as enjoyable as prison rape, I doubt their financial problems are soley due to freely available copies...

smash.

Re:They are way off!

[EMH_Mark3]

No no no, you've got it all wrong! You have to use MPAA math! That's 10 movies x 10 billion people x 100 000$ (maximum fine per copyright infringement) = 10 000 000 000 000 000 $, or ten thousand trillion dollars of loss per year! Clearly those evil pirates must be stopped at *any* cost, we're on the edge of a global economic catastrophe!