For All The 'Significant Blows' To Piracy, Shouldn't Piracy Have Gone Way Down?

Overhype

from the just-wondering... dept

I’m beginning to notice a pattern. Following just about any “high profile” shutting down of a file sharing or content counterfeiting operation, an entertainment industry exec will proudly state how it’s a “significant blow” to piracy. Yet, it never seems like any of these “significant blows” have even the slightest actual impact on the marketplace. Remember how shutting down the Pirate Bay was supposedly a “significant blow” against copyright infringement online… when the reality was that (1) if it stayed down people would have just gone elsewhere (2) it was down for just a few days and (3) when it came back online it was much bigger than ever before thanks to the publicity from the raid. So, why is it that the media still has no problem claiming that a raid on some counterfeiting operation is a “significant blow to the nation’s piracy market”? Indeed, it does sound like a fairly large counterfeiting operation — and these are exactly the types of operations the industry should be moving against. However, it’s hard to believe this will have any real economic impact on the market for counterfeit DVDs and CDs. The operation had a grand total of 208 CD and DVD burners. That’s clearly more than your average home user, but that’s still not a huge number.

Also, while the report does make it clear that plenty of counterfeit content was found at the site (someone’s garage), it’s worth remembering that the entertainment industry also has a long history have overstating the actual specifics of these busts as well. In 2002, following a similar raid, the RIAA claimed that 421 CD burners had been seized. The truth was that only 156 CD burners were found, but the RIAA raised the number because some of the burners ran at “faster speeds” than more common CD burners. Then, there was the case from last year, where the MPAA claimed it had shut down a counterfeiting plant that had $30 million worth of counterfeit DVDs. Except… that also turned out to be false. The plant had not been shut down. The plant owners pointed out that they were a legitimate business that had been around for 15-years, and the seized DVDs were legal products that they were producing under contract for a large public company — and were only worth a few thousand dollars, rather than $30 million. So, forgive us for thinking that (1) this new raid was not as big as the story claims and (2) that this will not be “a significant blow” to the market for counterfeit products.