Report: Piracy may not affect revenues

08 Jun 10 19:24 by Marteen Madison in category Music, Piracy

A report released in the United Kingdom yesterday by the Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property Policy states that data available from the music industry is “insufficient in order to make a case for copyright”.

The Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property Policy is an independent public agency sponsored by the UK Intellectual Property Office.

The report mentions that the Music industry’s claims of enormous monetary damages caused by file sharing is contentious. Or in other words, highly disputable.

“Even the most fundamental questions (for example, the effects of unathorised digital copying) have not yet been documented exhaustively. Those issues that have attracted considerable attention – e.g. the effect of file sharing on record industry revenues – remain contentious and further research seems desirable.” – said the report’s author, Christian Handke.

“It makes most sense to discuss the details of a copyright system if there is a well-supported case for copyright to begin with. According to economic literature, it is not entirely certain that unauthorised use is welfare decreasing, or that an adequate copyright system would solve the problem without excessive unintended consequences” Handke stated.

The report not only calls into question the supposed negative effects of piracy, it also questions the entire copyright system as a whole and whether or not it is beneficial whatsoever. After all, if there were no intellectual property laws, piracy would not exist.

Would everyone be better off without a copyright system in place? Information wants to be free, right?

11 Comments on Report: Piracy may not affect revenues

ivid
Posts: 722
Posted on: 08 Jun 10 20:06
You mean a download doesn't equal a lost sale ? OMG what a shock.
Blu-rayFreak
Posts: 954
Posted on: 08 Jun 10 21:24
I find it amusing and ironic that a study made possible by the Intellectual Property Office questions the need for copyright at all...
coolcolors
Posts: 6481
Posted on: 08 Jun 10 21:29
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blu-rayFreak View Post
Report: Piracy may not affect revenues.

[newsimage]http://static.rankone.nl/images_posts/2010/06/Ohiwo6.png[/newsimage]


Read the full article here: http://www.myce.com/news/report-pira...evenues-30628/


Please note that the reactions from the complete site will be synched below.

Your kidding right... OMG did I die and go to heaven... duh...any user what their brains still intact already knows all their hype about lost revenue was all but "HOT" air....without any traction.
DukeNukem
Posts: 1606
Posted on: 08 Jun 10 21:43
I think the RIAA/MPAA got their loss estimate formula by reviewing this trial...

http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/hackers/kevin-mitnick/

"The court case against Mitnick was completely and entirely whacked. The FBI encouraged victim corporations to inflate loss estimates by tens of millions of dollars and prosecutors tacted on many extra felony charges. In some cases, the "damages" for the software that Mitnick allegedly copied included the cost for all the hardware, salaries, and buildings that were used to write the software."
debro
Posts: 13326
Posted on: 09 Jun 10 13:42
Quote:
Originally Posted by article
The report not only calls into question the supposed negative effects of piracy, it also questions the entire copyright system as a whole and whether or not it is beneficial whatsoever. After all, if there were no intellectual property laws, piracy would not exist.

Would everyone be better off without a copyright system in place? Information wants to be free, right?
I disagree ... without and period of copyright, there would be no profit incentive, and hence no reason to innovate

A short period of copyright for creative works (maybe 2-5yrs) is required to establish identify the original creative artists.

In Australia, there is legal dispute concerning a gene pattern that is a key indicator in several different cancers (approx 15% of cases) .... This DISCOVERY is to the benefit of all mankind, however the company that DISCOVERED it has patented the knowledge & forced several hospitals using equipment searching for this gene in cancer patients to stop the screening.

I would suggest that this is morally reprehensible, given that the company hasn't released products to use this knowledge in the several years since DISCOVERY.

I could understand a patent for equipment and processes ... but for a DISCOVERY?
The patent world has overstepped it's bounds, and is no longer server the interests of mankind. Some heavy regulation is required.
Circlestrafe
Posts: 77
Posted on: 10 Jun 10 17:13
They needed a report to figure that out? My dog already knew that, and he heard it from the rock out in the front yard. I can't tell you how relieved I am that someone else finally figured out 2+2=4.

I'd love to see their formula for PiratesStoleTHISMuchMoneyFromUs'. Probably something like; Well Bob, if we factor in 25 bucks for every bit from every song that was ever clicked on, regardless of it actually being transferrred, we should come up with a rather accurate figure, plus or minus 4 billion percent.
SouthOMike
Posts: 25
Posted on: 11 Jun 10 21:46
The hard documentation that any of these entities is never going to surface, for it would show all the blue edits to "add here" "decrease this amount" "inflate this sale" to it. Do they think we're all sheep and just follow whatever way they want?

Sheesh...
wizardB
Posts: 11
Posted on: 02 Jul 10 23:52
Our whole economic model is failing(just look around)it is based on the same crapp ideas that gave us the dutch tulip bulb crisis in the 1700's we need to come up with a new way not find new and stupider ways to prop up the old model!!
coolcolors
Posts: 6481
Posted on: 05 Jul 10 03:40
Quote:
Originally Posted by wizardB View Post
Our whole economic model is failing(just look around)it is based on the same crapp ideas that gave us the dutch tulip bulb crisis in the 1700's we need to come up with a new way not find new and stupider ways to prop up the old model!!
I don't know about you but maybe here a intro respective look at whom the rest elected into office and made this mess in the first place. So I will say to those whom cries piracy whom put those pirates in the Congress in the first place. The people whom voted them in and now cry fowl...
bobmacans
Posts: 7
Posted on: 06 Jul 10 08:46
It will affect somehow.
Mr. Belvedere
Posts: 18833
Posted on: 06 Jul 10 11:13
Tell us, what do you think about

Report: Piracy may not affect revenues

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