My senior Project Paper: The effects of Piracy

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JPaul

The word "loses" implies lost sales. However it is unlikely that all instances of piracy are people who would have bought the item, had they not stolen it. I think this is unlikely.

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My point exactly.

The term "losses" in articles on this topic can be interpreted in different ways with different weights on the argument. Some people can read it merely as lost sales, others would read it as the amount they've lost directly due to piracy, others as being that much down compared to the revenue figures of the previous year and others (though unlikely given the business of such industries) are the industries not making any cash whatsoever but instead losing those amounts - The last being the unlikeliest but the most severe of the interpretations.

Hence why it's important to be careful with objective data and to make sure the context is known properly in an essay. :)

I seem to remember a report regarding the music biz stating a certain percentage loss.
I can only lay it out as an example as I dont have exact figures although its posted somewhere on the net.

First lets say during previous years as an example they had sold 5000 items while producing lets say 100 projects at which sold an average of 50 copies each.

Following lets say they had sold 4400 items while producing lets say 80 projects at which sold an average of 55 copies each.

Now the report could say theyre sales were down by 12% which would be a big number to show in dollars.
(5000 items down to 4400 items)
Although technically their per project sale was up 10%!!
(50 items sold per project up to 55 items)

Fact was that they had reduced their projects significantly so that of course the gross was down. Also if i remember in the report the fact they had reduced their production was not show as part of equation. It was later posted on a website how the numbers were manipulated. I would imagine if any business removed some of their stock or whatever they were selling it would be thought sales would naturally go down...