brainwagon

Ars Technica points us at both an article from The Economist which questioned the accuracy and methology of the BSA in determining of piracy to businesses, and the terse and unresponsive reply from Beth Scott of the BSA.

Reproduced here in full:


SIR —
Your article on software piracy was extreme, misleading and irresponsible ("BSA or just BS?", May 21st). The headline was particularly offensive. The implication that an industry would purposely inflate the rate of piracy and its impact to suit its political aims is ridiculous. The problem is real and needs no exaggeration.


Piracy probably is a problem for businesses. The question is: how much of a problem is it? In the BSA’s world, every pirated copy of software is a lost sale. They, like the MPAA and the RIAA, don’t realize that software, like movies and music, are incredibly elastic commodities. If faced with actually having to buy them for current market price, most people would simply do without rather than pay for them. In strictly economic sense, this severely limits the potential losses. It’s like saying that if you doubled tolls on the Bay Bridge, you’d make twice as much money. What really would happen would be that less people would travel over the Bay Bridge. Effects on actual revenue are considerably harder to predict.

I don’t support piracy, but the BSA is full of BS.