Copy Protection A 'Boom Business', Except When It Isn't

from the doesn't-add-up dept

Thu, Feb 1st 2007 2:21am — Carlo Longino

A story over at InformationWeek raised our hackles a bit with the headline "Copyright Protection A Boom Business" followed by the summary saying, "Cracking down on piracy contributed to 6.6% of the U.S. gross domestic product in 2006, according to an industry lobbying group." Just sounds like more typically inflated and ridiculous claims about piracy that regularly stream out from the content industry, which then get presented to legislators as reasons why we need more laws to bolster their aging business models. Just one problem, though: the facts of the story don't support the headline at all. An industry group merely presented a report saying that "core copyright industries" -- basically content and software -- made up 6.6% of US GDP in 2006, which is a reasonable enough claim. While the group's claims don't match those of the headline, they do go off the rails in their own way. It says these industries were responsible for 13% of the country's GDP growth in 2005, and that means that they deserve more significant protection from the government in the way of stricter copyright laws and enforcement. That's a pretty pathetic admission that the only way for them to maintain their sales and growth is through increased government support and protection, instead of realizing they've got a lot more to gain if they'd quit seeing their businesses as dependent on copyright, and using it to try and manufacture scarcity.

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7 Comments

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franticindustries, 1 Feb 2007 @ 3:40am

piracy & numbers
Every time you see a number or a percentage with the word "piracy" in the same sentence, you can be completely certain that the number is either incorrect, irrelevant and a figment of some bureaucrat's imagination - or, in most cases, all three.
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Ponder, 1 Feb 2007 @ 5:17am

But the otherside...
Creating DRM is one thing, but I know for sure that as long as there is DRM then software to get round DRM will be a big market (even if its illegal)
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Vincent Clement, 1 Feb 2007 @ 6:03am

Just the facts...
Durable goods accounted for 8% of US GDP. Food was good for 9.6% of US GDP. Medical sevices accounted for 12%. The category Other Services accounted for 9.7% of GDP.

So in the scheme of things, the 'core copyright industries' are no more important than your grocery store, your hospital and bunch of miscellaneous services.
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Wizard Prang, 1 Feb 2007 @ 6:17am

Lies, damned lies and...
..what was it that Mark Twain said?
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Bumbling old fool, 1 Feb 2007 @ 6:57am

Sounds about right..
It wouldnt suprise me in the least to hear that the **AA has spent 6% of the US GDP on lawyers for frivolous lawsuits.

But just because they are wasting money does not mean they deserve more laws that will allow them to waste more money.
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|333173|3|_||3, 1 Feb 2007 @ 3:20pm

Actually, if there were more laws about copy protection, then they would not be wasting money, because the new laws would make sure they can get expenses fromt he people, as well as punitive dameages, so they could make a pretty big profit witout any recording at all.

Benjamin Disraeli was the first person to come up with the three categories of falsehood. He was a Jewish politician (as in d'Israeli) who became Prime Minister of the UK
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ForgottenVoter (profile), 16 Aug 2010 @ 11:46am

Re:
Benjamin Disraeli was the first person to come up with the three categories of falsehood. He was a Jewish politician (as in d'Israeli) who became Prime Minister of the UK ...and what are those 3 categories of falsehood?
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