Slashdot Technology Story | BSA Says 41% Software On Personal Computers Is Pirated
But it's true that piracy is hurting the industry
Piracy may be specifically hurting IP industries, but it's a net win for the economy. The dead weight loss [wikipedia.org] caused by monopoly rights damages the economy as a whole, probably by amounts that dwarf the whole revenue of those industries, and only piracy mitigates that damage.
but it's not a good model to sustain the development and producment.
At the efficiency levels seen in the monopoly industries it's obvious that neither is monopoly a good model to sustain development and production. At about 5% efficiency, as in the music industry, it's even worse than the worst of government run programs. Others, like productivity software, have a level of fungibility which has at least had some competitive effect. None, however, demonstrate anything remotely like what an acceptable overhead should look like in a competitive industry and together the IP industries are an albatross around the neck of todays western economy.
What do you think about piracy?
