Piracy “Costs”

Ars Technica has a good article today about the costs of piracy where they debunk (in four glorious pages) two figures that are often cited to explain just how bad the piracy problem has become.

They’ve done an excellent job showing that the figures are absolutely bogus, but their conclusion really makes quite a point. For reference, the first figure is that 750,000 jobs have been lost due to piracy, and the second is that piracy costs $200-$250 billion.

Here’s a quote from the conclusion, after they have debunked both of the numbers:

Neither figure is terribly plausible on its face. As Wired noted earlier this week, 750,000 jobs is fully 8 percent of the current number of unemployed in the United States. And $250 billion is more than the combined 2005 gross domestic revenues of the movie, music, software, and video game industries.

Hmmm…sounds like these numbers might be a bit exaggerated.