

How Copyright Industries Con Congress - AdamFernandez
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/how-copyright-industries-con-congress/

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AndrewDucker
All of this fuss, and it's only a few hundred million that's at stake?

If I had the money I'd get this into easily digestible form and plaster it all
over TV so that people could see that a trivial amount of cash was being used
to bring in appalling laws.

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nextparadigms
It's scary that they have this kind of power on a global scale now, and they
are starting to convert country after country and get them to censor their own
Internet. It's like MPAA and RIAA are the oil cartel of the 21st century.

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sutterbomb
_Of the total $6.1 billion in annual losses LEK estimated to MPAA studios, the
amount attributable to online piracy by users in the United States was $446
million—which, by coincidence, is roughly the amount grossed globally by Alvin
and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel._

That's the money quote right there.

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spinchange
In his latest remarks to the press, Representative Smith is still citing a
$100 billion dollar figure as the cost of piracy to the US economy.

[http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/13/us-usa-internet-
pi...](http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/13/us-usa-internet-piracy-
idUSTRE80C04T20120113)

*edited spelling error.

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gbhn
This is a good article, and the bit about money saved by pirates being pure
economic surplus that is spent and stimulates actual jobs is gold.

But it is obvious on its face that the publishers' concerns have virtually
nothing to do with jobs (except a particular few of course), and that this is
just offered up to Congress to use as talking points when replying to
constituents or deflecting questions.

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danso
Remember during the build up to the Iraq war (2003) when a dossier used to
justify the war was revealed to have copied portions of a _graduate student's_
essay? <http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/529>

Think of how information is gathered for any kind of group/commission
report...often through the use of assistants of varying skill in information-
processing. It's not surprising that some number copied out of context from an
out-of-date op-ed would be repeated ad nauseum.

Paper reports aren't easily hyperlinkable to ensure accuracy of their sources.

~~~
onemoreact
They are also often written by young consultants who don't really care about
the topic at hand. I have often seen reports to congress be handed down 5+
layers of management to a 22 year old in the middle of a huge time crunch who
basically says whatever seems reasonable to them and then everyone above them
signs off on it at most skimming over what's said and then passing it on.

One example that comes to mind was someone who asked their boss a basic policy
question which then traveled though 8 hops before someone asked them their own
question. (up 4 over 1 down 3 then back to them) You could see their email
address on the top and bottom of this long chain. He almost sent it back up
just to see what would happen.

~~~
Pengman
I hate to do this, but is there anywhere I can read that story (and forward
the link to people that might... benefit)?

