Piracy a threat to U.S. economy?

A recent article by ReportOnBusiness.com (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070828.IBWORLD28/TPStory/Business) makes the case that piracy may not just be hurting certain digital media industries. In fact, it could be hurting the US economy as a whole.

"The annual drain on the economy includes $12.5-billion in output, 71,060 jobs and $422-million in federal, state and local taxes, according to a new study by Stephen Siwek of the Institute for Policy Innovation."

"The true cost of sound-recording piracy far exceeds its impact on U.S. producers and distributors ..." the study concludes. "Piracy harms not only the owners of intellectual property, but also U.S. consumers and taxpayers."

The argument is made that the true cost of piracy is TWICE as great as is currently being estimated. I wouldn't be surprised if this turns out to be true but this doesn't change the reality that a large portion of the 14 to 35 year old generation has been trained to ignore copyright laws on a plethora of products.

The whole piracy argument is dead on arrival. You are not going to change people's value system just by a few lawsuits here and there. Really, when you boil it down, there are only 2 strategies being employed to combat piracy, litigation and DRM. Neither is effective at getting to the real goal which is changing the mindset to bring monetary value back to music.

One thing the industry needs to do right away is stop letting iTunes have a monopoly on the easiest way to acquire legal music online. Make everything iPod compatible and let every site you can find, sell it at a variable pricing model. Part of the problem is that consumers can't get music easily even when they want to be honest.