copyright piracy

**jo ellen meyers sharp h*@sbcglobal.net**

Per our recent discussion, this came today in a newsletter e-mail 
from the Society of Professional Journalists:

*MEDIA INDUSTRY
*/Estimates of copyright piracy losses vary widely/

The plastic in a blank CD or DVD costs less than a quarter. Putting a 
price on a disc loaded with content is more difficult.

When the music industry finds a CD that has been ripped off by 
copyright pirates, it says it is worth between $1 and $5. Hollywood 
says a pirate disc can be worth between nothing and the full retail 
price of around $25. The software industry sometimes weighs in at 
more than $200 per counterfeit disc.

Why is there such a wide range in the estimates? Counting the losses 
from piracy isn't a science -- it's an art. Police in developing 
countries like China may count pirated goods at their street value, 
but companies and industry associations have different, often 
political, goals behind their counting systems. Now the growing 
problem of Internet piracy is making gauging losses even harder, and 
more controversial.

... Somebody who buys a pirated disc at a steep discount isn't 
necessarily a lost customer for a full-priced product. In many poor 
countries, a customer who buys a CD for $1 could never afford to pay 
$16.95 for a legitimate copy. In countries such as China and Vietnam, 
many legitimate film titles aren't even allowed on store shelves 
because of government quotas and censorship standards. Moreover, 
music industry surveys have found that in some developed markets, 10% 
to 15% of consumers actually spend more money on legitimate music 
when they're also downloading songs illegally.

So is a pirated disc really a loss?

Source: Geoffrey A. Fowler, The Wall Street Journal 
<http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB114919386653269006-oWE_JtlIevncii9RXrD7P1VNVmw_20060609.html?mod=blogs>
-- 
Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp
Garden writer, author, photographer
Region III Director Garden Writers Association
Phone: (317) 251.3261
Fax: (317) 251.8545
E-mail: hoosiergardener@sbcglobal.net

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