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Piracy has 'tragic' impact on US society, says BSA
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The following comments relate to this news article:
article published on 22 July, 2008
The Business Software Alliance released a new report yesterday claiming that software piracy in the United States has cost the industry $11.4 billion USD and lost the government $1.7 billion in taxes.
The group did however note that piracy is relatively low in the United States compared to the rest of the world and that the average of the 50 states is about 20 percent. The group did call ... [ read the full article ]
Please read the original article before posting your comments.
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ookami
Junior Member
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23. July 2008 @ 10:18 |
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Here's the tragedy. Doubletalk and misleading information.
Here's what they lump into the "piracy" umbrella.
1) Software downloaded online - yes, this is piracy. It's a VERY small percentage of people. VERY small.
2) Counterfeiting - oversea sweatshops use professional equipment to duplicate media and documentation so that you can barely tell the difference. They then flood the market with it and some even makes it to the US. This IS the "piracy" that funds terrorism and is supposedly causing the huge loss in revenue. It makes up the lion's share of their statistics.
3) Multiple Loads - People who load a legitimate purchased software on multiple computers. It includes the artist who loads his one copy of PHotoshop on his laptop and his desktop. (OMG!) This is the 2nd largest "piracy" issue in the US.
But they take all of this and lump it into the "piracy" umbrella and make people who download a copy of software or load their application on two PCs look just guilty as the people mass producing counterfeit copies of the software and using the profits however.
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ikari
Junior Member
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23. July 2008 @ 10:28 |
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Originally posted by atomicxl:
I think the real tragedy is that piracy has caused my generation and the ones after me to totally devalue all forms of art. Someone said DVDs and CDs cost too much. Come on. A movie is like $14.99 and about $9.99 a few months later. You can buy a song for $1... a cd on amazon for $8.99. People don't even think a song is worth a dollar.
You can listen to and enjoy a song for the rest of your life, but people put the value of that around the same price as a Snicker bar. I think thats the sad thing. The value of all art tops out around 50 cents.
I think in the future stuff like that will move us toward the big brother society everyone rants against far quicker than anything the government has done.
Agreed. Sometimes, extreme opposing comments and actions help your opponent more than hurts them. Have you ever heard a yelling screaming person argue with a calm and relaxed person?
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Senior Member
4 product reviews
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23. July 2008 @ 10:28 |
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in other news DXR88's Farting has a 'tragic' impact on U.S. Society.
My Mother has a 'tragic' impact on U.S. Society.
My dog has a 'tragic' impact on U.S. Society.
No rain in Florida has a 'tragic' impact on U.S. Society.
Rising gas prices has a 'tragic' impact on U.S. Society.
the fall of the U.S. dollar has a 'tragic' impact on U.S. Society.
cutting down the rain forest has a 'tragic' impact on U.S. Society.
Chinese manufactured imported goods has a 'tragic' impact on U.S. Society.
Terrorism has a 'tragic' impact on U.S. Society.
FireArms have a 'tragic' impact on U.S. Society.
of course i could go on all day
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 23. July 2008 @ 10:38
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Gnawnivek
Member
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23. July 2008 @ 10:43 |
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Thanks for the laughs guys/gals... BSA is BS to start with, lol. Anyway, the money will not make to schools and police departments. So, why even bother making statements like COULD hire enough cops to patrol XXX and COULD build schools enough to educate YYY.
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Senior Member
4 product reviews
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23. July 2008 @ 10:51 |
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i forgot the most important one.
BSA has a 'tragic' impact on U.S. Society.
kk im done
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goodswipe
Suspended permanently
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23. July 2008 @ 11:28 |
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Originally posted by defgodThen and only then could those things happen. But it never will because the large corporations/rich pretty much control the government. They pay for their campaigns and a lot of other things. Hell they pretty much keep them in office. In turn then politicians put little provisions in the laws and bills that help the corporations/rich.:
The NWO is upon us my friend....
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Member
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23. July 2008 @ 11:29 |
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Someone like this empty suit needs to experience real tragedy, like coming home to find his family dead.
Scum like this cheapen the word by associating it with their greed.
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suntreker
Newbie
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23. July 2008 @ 12:14 |
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I was reading this article while leaning over my keyboard,such a sad tale all those company's are getting quite poor and not being able to pay more taxes to the government. I broke down and flooded my keyboard with tears. I think we should all send a donation to the business software alliance. Please make sure that your donation is in a leak proof container so the smell wont get out.
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Senior Member
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23. July 2008 @ 12:52 |
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"Had that software not been pirated, the BSA claims 25,000 police officers could be hired each year to patrol New York, Florida, California and Nevada as well as have 100 new middle schools created for children."
LOL... suuuuuure it would have been used to hire more cops and educate children. *cough*bullshit*cough*
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emugamer
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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23. July 2008 @ 12:52 |
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Originally posted by atomicxl:
I think the real tragedy is that piracy has caused my generation and the ones after me to totally devalue all forms of art. Someone said DVDs and CDs cost too much. Come on. A movie is like $14.99 and about $9.99 a few months later. You can buy a song for $1... a cd on amazon for $8.99. People don't even think a song is worth a dollar.
You can listen to and enjoy a song for the rest of your life, but people put the value of that around the same price as a Snicker bar. I think thats the sad thing. The value of all art tops out around 50 cents
I'll spend $17 on a CD if it's from an artist whom I enjoy and has proven himself time and time again. I'll spend full price for a DVD or a bluray movie that had a huge impact on me. And I'll make the bold statement that most people feel the same way. "Piracy" normalizes the value of the artist in that artists make exactly what they should. Of the millions of songs that have been "pirated" over the years, how many have been deleted because the "Pirate" just didn't care for them? How many "Pirates" developed a liking to specific artists and purchased their music? How many "Pirates" were exposed to different genres and purchased a new type of music? And on the flip side, how many "Pirates" just download and hoard terabytes of material without contributing to society? I haven't seen a study on that yet. The only studies I've seen are biased since they are from organizations that are somewhat tied to big media.
As for software, if every average person (not a business) had no choice but to purchase software to do anything at all, you would see the number of PC sales plummet. Just as a random example, The average person cannot afford the high price of software just to mess around occasionally. Neither can most college students, even at a discounted price. If I purchased all of the software I wanted to occassionally mess around with over the years, I'd have to sell my home.
You see, these numbers are all one-sided. Every "study" that comes out is one-sided. It assumes that all people who download are greedy thieves that hoard free stuff. The problem is, there is no data to prove otherwise, and I doubt a group like the BSA is going to carry out that study. We've heard from the BSA, now how about we hear from the consumers? It's easy to win a case with absurd statements and claims when nobody responds or fights back. We need a Pirated Media Association, that can counter absurd claims with their own absurd claims, just to show how ridiculous this all is.
I'm not for or against piracy, mainly because I don't even recognize the label or what it stands for. I feel that the label "Piracy" is legitimate when it comes to people profitting from physical sales of copies, otherwise it's just a marketing gimmick employed to evoke feelings of guilt and shame, all for the benefit of greedy Corporate America. If a true study was conducted that took into account all sides and all of the effects of file sharing, and it turned out that it did indeed have a negative impact....and if solutions were provided that did not involve severley punishing the poor and middle class, then I would be more inclined to take the side for what was "right." But what is actually "right" is too skewed by corrupt, greedy individuals that will tell you anything to get your money.
Solution - keep buying what you want and don't buy what you don't want. Don't be influenced or fooled. Hopefully, someone will bring these scare tactics into question.
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Member
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23. July 2008 @ 13:20 |
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Originally posted by atomicxl:
I think the real tragedy is that piracy has caused my generation and the ones after me to totally devalue all forms of art. Someone said DVDs and CDs cost too much. Come on.
I agree somewhat, but you're in the music business, so you're partial.
I can also see it from a college student's point of view, where they've only got so much cash to spread around.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 23. July 2008 @ 13:21
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jetyi83
Member
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23. July 2008 @ 13:33 |
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Originally posted by stuntman_:
haha I am proud to be apart of something that puts less cops on our streets
lol//
even if this were true which its not at all, its still 1.5 billion in taxes. Big deal we spend that every day on war. Start telling people that one less day in iraq could hire 1000 police officers and feed thousands of grade schoolers. It could save 10 kittens per hour and give baby deer their inoculations.
No one cares. Pirate all day every day. cant stop wont stop
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Newbie
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23. July 2008 @ 13:56 |
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My point is that if the freaks who've taken over the entertainment business were not "unreasonable" with the prices they charge, and were not "foolish" with these studies, they'd have already reached the solution WE WILL FORCE UPON THEM.
My point is that if they were reasonable and set the price at about 50 cents per song ($1 a song isn't cheap enough - it makes many CDs exceed $20), putting say 20 songs on a CD would cost $9.99. A LOT FEWER people would bother to download.
Buying a movie on DVD shouldn't cost 2-5 times more than it costs for a theatre admission ticket.
It's extremely cheap to press CDs and DVDs. Their profits are exorbitant.
You can argue all day about whether a song is worth 'only' 50 cents or only $1. That's what the media pigs do.
If you want to get people buying CDs and DVDs and becoming collectors again, sharing covers and liner notes etc..., then the price has got to be good. IMO, $15 to $20 isn't good enough.
My second point is that if they were sensible and stopped commissioning biased studies that don't take into account the number of people who would NOT BUY the product anyway even if they couldn't download it, either because a) they can't afford it (as emugamer said) or b) because they really don't want it that much, then perhaps they'd stop speaking in doublespeak and start talking real real (not drug real).
And I'd like to add another point many of us are aware of. In addition to the crazy prices of CDs and DVDs, they have a way of packaging audio and video, so that it isn't always easy to get everything. If you want everything with a specific artist, it's often easier to look around.
Finally fellow dawners, the entertainment freaks are NOT right wing suits who look like VP Cheney. No, they're left wing freaks who look like Adam Sandler. They'd be hanging out with many of us, if they didn't get the jobs they got and if they weren't sitting on their boats drinking Pina Coladas and conspiring against us - their fellow brothers and sisters.
Everytime I see someone use the term "corporate" whatever, I think of the old image of the people who used to control the entertainment business. Those people are long dead and gone or retired. The business has been taken over by yuppies and GenXers. And they don't wear "suits". Only the lawyers they hide behind wear suits.
No fellow dawners, these fucks are people who used to be just like us - and would still be if they hadn't been given the jobs they have. And because we won't pay $25-30 for a movie or $15-20 for a CD, these left wing fucks are stabbing us in the back.
I totally agree with emugamer's solution: keep buying what you want and don't buy what you don't want. Don't be influenced or fooled. Hopefully, someone will bring these scare tactics into question.
And I would add, if we all make the benchmark 50 cents per song for music, and $5 per hour for video - everyone can be a winner (the artists, the distributors who rape them anyway, and most importantly us who I think they've forgotten).
Incremental Liberalism is change without informed consent.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 23. July 2008 @ 16:34
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Member
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23. July 2008 @ 14:15 |
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I think another addition besides CD-R and DVD-R are the DVD players that play Divx and Xvid. I mean kmon, what other purpose would there be to having one of these players other than downloading those 700mb movies and burning a bunch on a DVD.
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blueroad
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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23. July 2008 @ 15:06 |
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Originally posted by DXR88:
hahaha, thats a knee slapper, ah. keep up the good BSA. with statistics like these you might just graduate from Pre-K.
BSA=Bullsh*t Statistics Association.
hmm how bout BSA-Bullsh*t Spreading A$$h**es?
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beanos66
Member
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23. July 2008 @ 15:28 |
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lies, dammned lies, statistics and statistics made up by the bsa
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domie
Member
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23. July 2008 @ 18:41 |
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Quote:
Had that software not been pirated, the BSA claims 25,000 police officers could be hired each year to patrol New York, Florida, California and Nevada as well as have 100 new middle schools created for children.
and of course if piracy didn't exist - that absolutely would happen wouldn't it ? ( snicker )
how about diverting Barrack Obama's, Hillary Clinton's and John McCain's electoral campaign funds to the third world and eliminating poverty, disease and hunger in 2 weeks ?
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craftyzan
Member
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23. July 2008 @ 19:32 |
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Some bright lights in the entertainment industry have figured out that bittorrent is a no-cost marketing tool. Nine Inch Nails is deliberately leaving songs out on the web for download and for fan remixing.
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susieqbbb
Suspended permanently
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24. July 2008 @ 01:43 |
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This is messed up.
Let me explain you are saying the businesses are losing money when in fact i see more businesses while working on there servers using pirated software themself's so explain to me if a business is using pirated software and a company isn't willing to spend 35,000 dollers for a microsoft license then pretty much you leave no choice to business owners but piracy this is why i am a mac user.
Even if mac has the highest rate of piracy they give you the opertunity to try out the software and see if you like it before you purchase it where microsoft doesn't do this unless you are a it tech kinda lame.
I see so much piracy it is insane company's need to learn if it only cost 30.00 in one country it should cost the same in all the others at least them people will buy instead of pirate.
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Newbie
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24. July 2008 @ 16:14 |
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phuck em
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varnull
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24. July 2008 @ 16:29 |
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heres how it works in China.. People can't download western music and films easily, but they can buy a cd or dvd.. so 1 person buys it, and then makes 20,000 copies which they sell on markets and street corners and openly in shops at not much more (to them) than the cost of the materials... these people get rich quickly.
I can get all the latest mp3's (weekly mp3 disk) and films for £1 a go from the same people who sell smak crack tobacco alcohol and guns.. I make from them by using my cluster to master to dvd the avi's they get through their criminal connections.
I used to just download what I wanted, which I would never buy anyway.. but now I help the drug dealing gangsters with their criminal empire.. and do you know what.. it feels freakin good getting paid £50 per dvd master disk when I can churn out 4 an hour....
Since the UK threatened clampdown our disk sales are up 300% and rising.. more money for guns and drugs and piracy.. What a great idea.. If we make enough millions WE will be able to buy politicians just like a south american country.. roll on the future, still run by criminals.. just honest ones for a change.
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Member
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28. July 2008 @ 19:24 |
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What a laugh!!
Do we have to believe that the company or even the government would hire that many officers?? and as for the rest I'm still rolling on the floor!!!!
Had that software not been pirated, the BSA claims 25,000 police officers could be hired each year to patrol New York, Florida, California and Nevada as well as have 100 new middle schools created for children.
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rayhigh
Newbie
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28. July 2008 @ 21:46 |
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What always blows me away about this line of "reasoning" is the notion that if people weren't able to d/l music/software/video without paying, they would buy same at full retail price. I just don't see it. For my part, I'd guess that about 90% or more of the music I d/l I would not purchase. I rarely d/l films. The tv shows I d/l are mostly available over the air. As to the software, I would long ago have made the shift to Linux over Winblows, if I couldn't get it for free. Christ, M$ should pay me for using Vista on that one desktop. (Note: I had a system crash, needed an emergency machine, bought one fully built instead of building one from scratch as usual. It came with Vista. It really is as bad as is generally said. Ye Gods!)
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avoidz
Junior Member
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28. July 2008 @ 22:47 |
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More bull$hit propaganda from the big corporations...
And the War in Iraq costs, what, $720 million per day? Give us a fu*king break.
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bobalay
Newbie
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28. July 2008 @ 23:35 |
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The BSA should not forget that without piracy there would be no need for the BSA.
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