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BSA's Latest Piracy Claims 'Shockingly Misleading,' Says Geist
An anonymous reader writes "This week the Business Software Alliance published a new study
which purports to estimate the economic gain from a ten percent reduction in piracy of business software. For Canada, the BSA claims that the reduction would create over 6,000 new jobs and generate billions in GDP and tax revenue. But Michael Geist says the BSA claims are based on nothing more than the economic gains from a ten percent increase in proprietary software spending. The BSA now admits its estimate is based on the presumption that every dollar 'saved' by using unlicensed software would now be spent on proprietary software."
Glyn Moody pointed out more flaws in the BSA's report.
I ran the numbers and if the members of the BSA gave a Canadian 10 billion dollars:
- Canada's GDP would go up by billions of dollars
- Nearly 5 billion dollars would go to taxes
- The lucky guy or gal could spend 3 billion dollars to hire 6,000 people at an average of $50,000 a year for 10 years to build a monument of themselves.
- The lucky person would have 2 billion dollars left to spend
The choice is clear.
So what you're saying is that virtual dollars are constantly being created and destroyed in Economic Space? Forming the basis for a theory of Economic Vacuum Energy? Which itself is a part of Quantum Economics?
Generally, the illicit nature of counterfeiting and piracy makes estimating the economic impact of IP infringements extremely difficult, so assumptions must be used to offset the lack of data.
Well in this case it would be "making an ass of u and mptions"
Up Next: BSA claims that Open Source is the same as piracy. All software must be licensed, and those licenses must be purchased from member companies of the BSA.
From the same mindset that brought you "Skipping commercials is theft"
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.