Tag: piracy  Internet Regulation & the Economics of Piracy
How Copyright Industries Con Congress  I’ve yet to encounter a
technically clueful person who believes the Stop Online Piracy
Act will actually do anything to meaningfully reduce—let alone
“stop”—online piracy, and so I haven’t bothered writing much
about the absurd numbers the bill’s supporters routinely bandy
about in hopes of persuading lawmakers that SOPA will be an
economic boon and create zillions of jobs. If the proposed
solution just won’t work, after all, why bother quibbling about
the magnitude of the problem? But then I saw the very astute
David Carr’s otherwise excellent column on SOPA’s pitfalls,
which took those inflated numbers more or less as gospel. If
only because I’m offended to see bad data invoked so routinely
and brazenly, on general principle, it’s important to try to set
the record straight. The movie and music recording industry have
gotten away with using statistics that don’t stand up to the
most minimal scr