Software piracy cost the industry $50 billion in 2008

[deadrats]

http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/200920/3655/Software-piracy-cost-the-industry...illion-in-2008

the bsa and idc report also makes the claim that:

for every dollar lost to piracy by the software industry, between three and four dollars are lost by value-added services and support providers, which suggests total piracy-related costs of between $150 USD and $200 billion USD.

the problem with reports such as this is that they count sales not made as "dollars lost". the reality is that you can't lose what you never had, a point once illustrated beautifully by evander holyfield. he had signed a contract to fight tyson with a guaranteed pay day of 12 million, with the fight scheduled to be fought after tyson fought buster douglas (a fight widely regarded as a cakewalk for tyson). as tyson was knocked out by douglas the camera swung to holyfield who had a look on his face of wtf?

i remember turning to my brother and commenting to him about the look on evander's face and what he must be missing since he had just "lost" 12 million dollars, a view that was repeated on all the sports talk shows. shortly thereafter someone got an interview with holyfield and asked him the question on everyone's mind: "how does it feel to lose 12 million dollars"?

holyfield's response was: "everyone keeps saying i lost 12 million, but i never had the 12 million in the first place, you can't lose what you never had".

and you know what? he's right.

i used to own my own pest control business and using the bsa's reasoning i would have been justified in viewing anyone that decided to try and resolve their pest problems themselves as "money lost" or a "lost customer", similarly lube shops would be justified with viewing the do-it yourselfers as lost revenue.

but the view is wrong, there is no guarantee that were the less expensive/free alternative removed that people would flock to their product(s), similarly assuming all "piracy" was eliminated there is no guarantee that those people would start buying the software those companies sell, more likely is that the people used to using the "pirated" free software would either stop performing the tasks they were with the "pirated" software or they would look for legally free alternatives, such as open source software and i personally believe that we would see the market share of open source software grow exponentially if "piracy" were eliminated, thus leaving bsa member companies right where they are now, if not even worse off.

[jagabo]

for every dollar lost to piracy by the software industry, between three and four dollars are lost by value-added services and support providers, which suggests total piracy-related costs of between $150 USD and $200 billion USD.

This type of claim is total nonsense. Virtually every dollar not spent on software is spent on something else. It's just a matter of who gets the money. Of course, that doesn't make ill-gotten software right.

It's the same with the auto makers claiming that it would be catastrophic for the economy if one of the US makers went belly up. With the same type of reasoning -- the followup dollars. For example, if Chrysler disappeared, all those Chrysler employees would be out of a job. All the Chrysler dealers would go. All those Chrysler parts won't be used. All the service on the Chrysler autos will disappear.

But for nearly every Chrysler car that would have sold some other car will be sold. Yes Chrysler dealers will go out of business but now all the other auto dealers need more employees to handle the increased (over what they would have needed if Chrysler hadn't gone belly up) sales load. All the Chrysler parts that would have sold will now instead be parts for those other cars. All the service on those unsold Chryslers become service for those other cars. Etc. Even if those other car sales go to "foreign" makes, most of those foreign cars are made (at least assembled) in the USA or other NAFTA countries. The same places all those Chrysler cars are made. There would only be a short term glitch as things shuffled around.

Oops, sorry for the tangent...

[edDV]

Just think of all the collective money "lost" in the lottery. More than the world's debt I bet. Each lottery player lost millions in his eyes.

[jagabo]

Just think of all the collective money "lost" in the lottery.

LOL! I lost millions just last week!

[Noahtuck]

Think of all the money they lost when others & myself used to record stuff onto VHS from TV and watch it over and over and over for years after cutting out all the commercials

[orsetto]

Next up: the annual "off their meds" report from the always-delusional MPAA that their "lost sales" from consumer copying in 2008 was approximately one gazillion kabillion dollars. I am so sick of this self-serving BS, owning a video store for ten years served only to confirm my impression the studios are run by miscreant fools. deadrats had it exactly right with his Evander Holyfield analogy: you can't say you've lost something when theres absolutely no evidence you ever had or ever would have it to begin with!

[MJA]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8046564.stm

French 'net piracy' bill passed

Three strikes

The new legislation operates under a "three strikes" system. A new state agency would first send illegal file-sharers a warning e-mail, then a letter, and finally cut off their connection for a year if they were caught a third time.

this will cut the lost by 50%

[deadrats]

for every dollar lost to piracy by the software industry, between three and four dollars are lost by value-added services and support providers, which suggests total piracy-related costs of between $150 USD and $200 billion USD.

This type of claim is total nonsense. Virtually every dollar not spent on software is spent on something else. It's just a matter of who gets the money. Of course, that doesn't make ill-gotten software right.

It's the same with the auto makers claiming that it would be catastrophic for the economy if one of the US makers went belly up. With the same type of reasoning -- the followup dollars. For example, if Chrysler disappeared, all those Chrysler employees would be out of a job. All the Chrysler dealers would go. All those Chrysler parts won't be used. All the service on the Chrysler autos will disappear.

But for nearly every Chrysler car that would have sold some other car will be sold. Yes Chrysler dealers will go out of business but now all the other auto dealers need more employees to handle the increased (over what they would have needed if Chrysler hadn't gone belly up) sales load. All the Chrysler parts that would have sold will now instead be parts for those other cars. All the service on those unsold Chryslers become service for those other cars. Etc. Even if those other car sales go to "foreign" makes, most of those foreign cars are made (at least assembled) in the USA or other NAFTA countries. The same places all those Chrysler cars are made. There would only be a short term glitch as things shuffled around.

Oops, sorry for the tangent...

i hate to disagree with you but in many ways it would be "catastrophic" for the global economy if one or more of major auto makers went belly up, and i would extend that to include most big business in most industries.

the problem with a chrysler (as an example) collapse is that a lot of money would be taken out of circulation (note that i didn't say "disappear", as money seems to obey a law of conservation similar to energy and momentum), and the unemployment rate would spike. now it's potentially possible that eventually other competitors would fill the void left by chrysler's departure but that would take a while during which time the economy would really feel the impact.

the problem with chrysler (and gm for that matter) is that they have become too large, to the point that they can't sustain themselves, much like a guy that gets too fat and can't walk anymore because his knees can't handle the pressure.

what needs to happen is that chrysler (and gm) need to metaphorically lose some weight, get back to a healthy "fighting weight", not to skinny, but a lean well muscled outfit that can compete globally with quality cars at competitive prices.

gm kind of has the right idea trimming many of it's brands and only sticking with caddy, chevy and i forget which others, but i think they should have taken a completely different route: eliminate all the various brands, select one or two models from each division and sell them under the gm name brand; perhaps the gto and g8 gtp from pontiac, a large and medium sized suv and pickup truck, one or two luxury models from the caddy division and maybe an economy car or 2 for the budget minded and that it, sell them all as gm's. lean, mean without one division cannibalizing sales from another division.

chrysler should take a similar route, eliminate dodge as a brand and combine the two line ups into a group of cars that the buying public is willing to spend money on.

but if your major objection is with all the bailouts, then i have to agree with you, i don't believe in the handouts, but i do believe in giving them a loan to stay solvent.

as i said it's not that the money would disappear if they went under it's that the money would be taken out of circulation which would hurt numerous secondary and dependent industries and i honestly don't believe that any economy, but especially one as fragile as the one we are currently in, can survive such a shock.

[INFRATOM]

There is another angle to this. Some companies benefit from their software pirated because it is used so much that it gains the majority of market share and the competition dies out. In fact most of these companies are after corporate user market that brings the license money. I've seen some small software with good design and the programer made it impossible to hack or pirate soon they lost grounds to a famous brand that was possible (allowed ) to be pirated soon after the competition disappeared from lack of use or popularity. Photoshop is a good example.

[Cornucopia]

Yes, Infratom, that example is one of many that support my assertion that piracy (the consumer kind that is practiced unwittingly by many, not the predatory mass production kind) may in fact HELP the economy in general, and even benefit the media industry through increased product awareness, popularity and enthusiasm. You gotta know most pirated copies don't have all the benefits (be it quality, features, support, etc) of the original, and this just often whets the consumer's appetite.

Chew on that.

Scott

[T-Fish]

Think of all the money they lost when others & myself used to record stuff onto VHS from TV and watch it over and over and over for years after cutting out all the commercials

ever heard of the 84 sony trial
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Corp._of_America_v._Universal_City_Studios,_Inc.

[lacywest]

Just think of all the collective money "lost" in the lottery.

LOL! I lost millions just last week!

Crap ... I lost a billion bucks already ... geez ... and I didn't even notice it

[lacywest]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8046564.stm

French 'net piracy' bill passed

Three strikes

The new legislation operates under a "three strikes" system. A new state agency would first send illegal file-sharers a warning e-mail, then a letter, and finally cut off their connection for a year if they were caught a third time.

this will cut the lost by 50%

Hmmm ....

Maybe a new movie will come out based on this new "net piracy bill " .... they could call it ..... The French Connection :P :P 8)

[lordsmurf]

I forgot to buy lottery tickets last night, my net loss is at least 5 million now.