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aiolos

Tue 07 Nov, 2006


Piracy figures are inflated say criminologists

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As if we didn'<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> know,<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> but here goes <b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>:<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>
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A DRAFT REPORT by the Australian Institute of Criminology says copyright holders are making up piracy figures in order to sway governments to their side.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> <b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>
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The report says that piracy statistics are <b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>"self-serving hyperbole"<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> which are <b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>"unverified and epistemologically unreliable"<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> <b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>
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A leaked draft of the report has ended up in the sticky paws of an Australian newspaper.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> It says that copyright owners <b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>"failed to explain"<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> how they reached financial loss statistics used in lobbying activities and court cases.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> <b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>
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Recently the Business Software Association claimed it had lost <b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>$361 million a year to Australian pirates.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> Author of the report Alex Malik,<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> seems to imply that these figures are being plucked out of thin air.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> <b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>
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Malik who is working for the AIC under a commission from the Attorney-General's Department and IP Australia,<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> slammed the use of such statistics in court.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> <b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>
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Malik's report also dismisses claims that copyright theft is being carried out by organised crime.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> He said that either there is no evidence of any links between piracy and organised crime or no one has been able to find them.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>"<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> <b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>
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Malik added that either these statistics should be withdrawn or the purveyors of these statistics must supply valid and transparent substantiation.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> However it looks like the report is set to be watered down.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> Since the draft has been made public,<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> the BSAA has had a hissy fit.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> <b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>
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Now Institute principal criminologist Russell Smith said the report was <b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>"an early draft"<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> that was <b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>"being edited"<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> by the agency.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> <b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>
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Smith said that the institute wouldn't use language like Malik's because it's not accurate,<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> hyperbolic and overblown.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> Of course this does not stop it being true and it is nice that someone official actually tried to say it.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>