Tainted "Piracy" Statistics

newtley writes, "The music, movie, and software cartels claim 'piracy' is a Number One problem not only for themselves, but for the world as a whole and so successful are their continuing dis- and misinformation propaganda campaigns that they've been able to dragoon entire governments and police forces into acting as industry enforcers. But, says p2pnet, far from being at the top of the pile, movie and music piracy rank 16th and 20th, respectively, on a global index of illicit markets. (Software piracy ranks 7th.) And even those positions are subject to considerable doubt."

Sounds like a great waste of time all around

[dada21]

That list gives me even more reason to believe that society and the States that surround us are both inept. Look at the rundown of the top 10 items and the reasons why the item is "contraband."

1. Marijuana -- The State says what you can put into your body (doing no crime to no one else), probably funded by the big medical business

2. Counterfeit Technology Products -- This is why you shop at stores that guarantee their products with a refund. If there was no law against counterfeit goods, I'd let the retailer find out what is best for me. In some cases, something counterfeit might be of the same quality as the "official and legal" version. Look at Fendi handbags and their knock-offs

3. Cocaine -- See #1. No crime committed against anyone else. Now if you kill someone (when on drugs or off), I can agree that a crime is committed, but the intoxicant shouldn't matter. Sometimes that intoxicant is adrenaline.

4. Opion/Heroin -- See #1 (doing crime to no one else).

5. Pirated Web Videos. Supply and demand here. The supply of digitally transmitted products is nearly infinite, therefore the price falls to the floor. Then again, I am I am against copyright [www.nocopyrightstudios].

6. Counterfeit Pharmaceutical -- Here's another place that the retail and distributor can excel at. Don't trust your distributor? Shop at one that's insured and bonded against dispensing dangerous drugs, or knock-off ones.

7. Pirated Software. See #5 (supply and demand).

8. Human Trafficking. Here's a place I can understand goverment being involved in, but it is also one they're doing a terrible job in fighting. The worst concern is my thought that a lot of States might even be involved in this problem. I know the U.S. government trafficks in human lives and bodies. See Guantanemo Bay.

9. Amphetamines/Meth -- See #1 (doing crime to no one else).

10. Animals and Wildlife Smuggling. Here's a problem better solved through groups like PERC [perc.org]. If you care about rare animals, spend YOUR money to make wildlife habitats to keep them out of the open arms of the State that is part of the problem with extinction.

11. Ecstasy -- See #1 (doing crime to no one else).

12. Counterfeit Auto Parts -- See #2 (shop at trustworthy retailers if you're concerned).

13. Trash Smuggling. A friend of mine is a famous pastor in Uganda. I told him we should go into business to take trash from the U.S. on boats to Uganda and let people find value in the trash. He loved the idea. He deals with the absolute poorest people in Africa every day (I'm going there again in December) and he loves the thought that one man's trash is another man's treasure. They'd probably find millions of dollars worth of treasure in our trash.

14. Human Smuggling -- See #8 (State's failure).

15. Art and Antique Smuggling. I insure against theft, so should you. The State is worthless here.

16. Pirated Movies -- See #5 (supply and demand).

17. Smuggled Cigarettes -- Thank the market for cheaper tax free smokes. I noticed they were $7 a pack in Chicago a few weeks ago. Tax free they're about 70 cents. The State created this problem.

18. Gas and Oil Smuggling. See #17 on the State destroying the market of goods through taxation/theft.

19. Pirated Music -- See #5 (supply and demand).

20. Illegal Fishing -- See #10 (privately funded habitats).

22. Pirated Mobile Phone Entertainment -- See #5 (supply and demand).

23. Pirated Video Games -- See #5 (supply and demand).

24. Counterfeit Cigarettes -- See #17 (market provisions) and #2 (shop at trustworthy retailers if you're concerned).

25. Small Arms Trafficking -- See the second amendment.

27. Counterfeit Shoes -- See #2 (shop at trustworthy retailers if you're concerned).

28. Pirated Books -- See #5 (supply and demand).

29. Counterfeit Sports Memorabilia -- See #5 (supply and demand) and #2 (shop

Completely unsurprising

[swillden]

What a lot of people don't seem to realize is that the media industry is small potatoes. Seriously, look up some hard numbers aggregating the worldwide revenues and profits from music, movies, TV and video games and then compare them to the numbers from other industries. I did this a while back and found that any two of the biggest IT handful of IT companies exceeded the *entire* media industry. And IT is itself small potatoes compared to manufacturing, distribution, energy, agriculture etc. Any one of the major players in those real industries, the ones that actually make stuff, absolutely dwarfs the entire worldwide entertainment and media industry. Consider the fact that most of the music industry's US revenue is channeled through Wal-mart, and then consider what a tiny part of Wal-mart's business music is.

Even if media piracy were absolutely massive, the net effect on the US and world economies would be almost negligible. Piracy can't be a major problem because media isn't major.

But even though media is small potatoes financially, what they have is a direct line to the masses. Because communication is what they do, they have influence, and therefore power, that is orders of magnitude greater than their real economic importance.

Re:Sounds like a great waste of time all around

[Chimera512]

Equating Heroin and Marijuana?!? Are you serious? Heroin has claimed (tens? hundreds? of) thousands and thousands of lives from overdoses, AIDS, gang related violence, suicides and other terrible things I cannot imagine. My uncle, a friend and a girl from my high school (who had been a graduate for about a month) have all died in connection to Heroin.

I can't imagine I could find information more than a dozen marijuana related fatalities, if that many. I don't know of any first hand.

Re:Sounds like a great waste of time all around

[Cadallin]

Meth is only a problem because safer things are illegal and harder to get. Cocaine/LSD/Psilocybin (The list is due to the many effects of ampetamines which range from straight stimulant to psychodelic)are adequate replacements that are perfectly safe assuming a safe supply (that is, created in an actual chemical lab/plant, not a toilet bowl, as meth often is). Heroin is only dangerous to use because it is cut with quinine, which causes death by pulmonary effusion in overdose, and because needle sharing spreads HIV, another phenomena that wouldn't occur with legal availability.. And has anybody EVER adequately justified why marijuana use should be illegal? Because people get high and drive? I'll acknowledge that its dangerous and a bad idea to do so, but alcohol is a much worse problem, and Driving under the Influence of any pyschoative drug known to cause accidents should be illegal. Prohibition does not work! Drug Addiction (which is different from drug use) is a Medical problem, and should be treated as such!

Re:Completely unsurprising

[swillden]

Until you look at the number that's important: gross profit available to purchase politicians. While the sales in these other sectors is far larger than media, the dispensible income (and concentration thereof) is no where near.

Actually, profits in those other sectors *also* dwarf the profits in the entertainment industry. And, by and large, the political contributions are on a similar scale. The charity that manufacturing and agriculture extract from the federal government, for example, is mind-boggling. No, the only difference is that the media industry is more visible, both when they want to be and when they don't want to be.

Even in the political donations arena they're small potatoes financially, but wield inordinate influence.

It comes full circle

[XNine]

You see, the people trafficking monkeys and smokes make enough money to pump into other economies, like cars, homes, dining, etc. So essentially, they're probably pumping a ton of money into other industries, providing jobs and money for others. It's a double edged sword, I guess, when it comes to morality. But then again, had my company stolen a couple copies of windows, cut down on "HNIC" lunches, and not outsourced half the workforce to a company in Ohio who didn't care about customer service, just the number of calls they were actually taking, then I'd still have a job. So honestly, since these people are providing money to other markets and supporting their fellow man by doing so, I'm not so sure I have a problem with all of this. I'd rather be employed by someone that pays well and cuts a few legal corners, then be unemployed by someone who paid too much for the unethical and wrong services.

Re:Sounds like a great waste of time all around

[SpecBear]

You don't have to assume that all drugs are harmless in order to support their legalization. All that's required is that the harm done by prohibition is greater than the harm done by legalization. I've lived in neighborhoods that saw lots of drug traffic. If I had to choose between the current state of things and legalizing drugs (cocaine, speed, heroin, all of em) I'd choose legalization.

Re:Sounds like a great waste of time all around

[PachmanP]

Your logic is flawed because cocaine/opion(did you mean opium?)/heroin would become HUGE problems in society and I don't need to explain this if you have any practical sense whatsoever.

Humor us. What pray tell would the huge problems become? While I won't argue that with a little thought I couldn't think of a few problems, but the whole "I don't need to explain this..." argument doesn't wash. It certainly has no place in an intelligent discussion, and while I will admit that this is /. imagine how much better the discussions would be if people at least pretended it was an intelligent discourse.

Overly strong verbage

[jorghis]

Oh come on now. The writeup has the phrase: "dragoon entire governments and police forces into acting as industry enforcers". Copyright law has been around for a -LOT- longer than the .mp3 format. The MPAA has not dragooned entire governments. The governments are simply enforcing copyright laws. If a convenience store is robbed will we see a headline on slashdot about 7-11 dragooning entire city governments to go after the customers of 7-11? Are we suddenly opposed to all enforcement of laws on slashdot now or just copyright laws?

I remember when napster was the hot topic on slashdot and people ripped on the mpaa for going after napster when it was just a tool to search. "They should go after the individual violaters, napster isnt breaking the law!" was modded +5 again and again. Now a decade later the MPAA is doing just that, they are suing people who are violating copyright law. The old arguments were at least based off the idea that people shouldnt be allowed to break the law without fear of reprisal.

The MPAA has a right to expect that copyright laws be enforced as they are written.

Re:Sounds like a great waste of time all around

[Dunbal]

formal method by which the population can rise up and overthrow the government (bloodlessly) on a regular basis.

      Oh you bought into that lie did you? Politicians serve themselves first, the party second, and the people, oh well, we just didn't have the budget for it this year, but I promise that if you vote for me for another term, we'll...

      The parties are bought and sold. Vote for whoever you want. Your one studied and well intentioned vote will be lost in a sea of votes based on hairstyle, looks, sound-bytes and propaganda. And kid yourself into thinking that you made a difference.

Let's eliminate #1 right now...

[localman]

Live in Nevada? Question 7 on the November 7th ballot decriminilzes marijuana, regulating it somewhat like alcohol. It's a good first step.

Cheers.