One
of the striking features of reports purporting to estimate the
“damage” caused by piracy - both of software and content - is that
without exception, as far as I can tell, their numbers and methodology simply
do not withstand close scrutiny.
The
trouble is, when it's a question of lone voices like mine or even that of Techdirt's Mike Masnick, probably the most
dogged debunker of piracy FUD, the content industries
can ignore such posts, presumably in the belief that our quick analyses somehow
don't count.
But
that's not possible when the same points comes from a respected organisation
like the Social Science research Council,
“an independent, nonprofit international organization founded in
[...]
Given
the scope and rigour of this report, I think it will go down as a decisive
moment when the discourse around piracy changed fundamentally, with the content
industries being forced, finally, to explain and justify their methodologies,
rather than simply stating their claimed results. And once this level of rigour
is brought to bear on the subject, we will start to see very different figures
being quoted, and maybe even different policies being put in in place as a
result. That's bound to happen one day, when reality finally catches up with
the content industries: it's just a question of time....
Articolo
intero qui: http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2011/03/finally-calling-time-on-piracy-fud/index.htm