Figures of Piracy
Tue, 10/14/2008 - 00:56 — Jinghao
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates that "piracy costs the United States nearly $250 billion annually." Let's do some math on this.
How much do we really pirate? 250 billion dollars annually divided into 80 million American households yields 3125 dollars a year of piracy. Does the average American household pirate over 3000 dollars of stuff a year? Put another way, are there things that you currently pirate that you would pay the full price for if piracy were not an option--that sum up to a value of over 3000 dollars?
I highly doubt it.
Don't get me wrong: I think piracy is bad. I believe in having a strong system for protecting intellectual property. But I don't think flinging around false numbers is the way to do it.
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Comments
$3000+
songs/albums/images/tv shows/anime/manga scans/movies/porn?
i don't doubt it.
And you would buy them for
And you would buy them for the full market price if you could not obtain them freely? And the value of the pirated goods you would buy at full price exceeds 3000 dollars a year total?
being a college student with
being a college student with no income, no. but i'm sure the adult world comports itself otherwise.
You can't divide 250B dollars
You can't divide 250B dollars per year by 80 million households. Not all households pirate, and some people do it a lot lot more than others. With the amount there is to pirate, $3000 adds up really quick with the music, games, apps, etc... I don't doubt it at all either.
That's why it's called
That's why it's called AVERAGE. It's a concept we learned in elementary school. Discrete average is incredibly easy to calculate. It's total over count.
You also don't seem to understand the concept of stealing what you would otherwise pay for (at full price). For example, I would not include the 3000 dollar Adobe studio simply because I would not purchase that myself. I would not include Office 2007 either because I would not purchase that (I have OpenOffice). I would not include most things because if I had to pay, I wouldn't buy it.
Yeah, but you can't average
Yeah, but you can't average among households that don't own computers.
Anyhow, I did my own calculation: $2000 give another maybe thousand bucks since the year 2001. Blow me, and blow me hard, AmCham. I don't give a damn. And stop sending me pro-GOP emails.