On: Deleting and destroying finished movies

[gruez]

It is zero when the hard drive holding the only copy is degaussed.

[AlbertCory → gruez]

no, if you had an offer for $30M, then that was the value.

[gruez → AlbertCory]

And the value went to $0 after destroying it. I don't see what's the issue is here.

[AlbertCory → gruez]

If you can't understand accounting, maybe an introductory course would help.

[gruez → AlbertCory]

Whatever "introductory course" you took must be pretty bad, because even the elective I took in college taught that valuations on the same asset can go up and down.

[AlbertCory → gruez]

apparently they didn't teach about "fair market value" then.

[smileybarry → gruez]

The buyer is not buying the hard drive, they're buying the asset it holds. If you destroy the only copy, you make it unobtainable but the value of that intellectual property is arguably still $30m. (If said offer was $30m, in this case)

For that reason: if the studio destroyed all known copies of the movie, write it off, and then an unknown copy gets leaked by someone who worked on it -- the studio will still sue for damages >$0 and claim in court that any piracy downloads are potential viewings, ergo stolen profit.