Let's take a brain break with a little humor this morning. Many of us have an iPod, or some type of MP3/music playing device; and we've all heard the news reports of music and movie piracy. Rob Reid takes a shot at deciphering the real cost of pirated media in this short talk "The $8 Billion iPod"
Running time: 5:11
Comment if the talk moves you to do so!
I am not a pirate, but my sons are. Or shall I say "ARRRR." ;-)
ReplyDeleteI liked seeing this in perspective! I would still like to see that math :)
ReplyDeleteReally light hearted talk about a topic that some take very serious.Always wondered how some have to pay while others can get songs and videos for free....
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ReplyDeleteI like his use of math to prove a point.
ReplyDeleteAmusing talk about a complicated issue. Here are a few thoughts:
ReplyDelete1. Record companies often portray the problem in terms of artists' rights, which most people would support. The entertainment companies who just sued Pirate Bay won a tidy sum of money as compensation for their losses. Guess how much of this goes to the artists (apparently, none): Article at TorrentFreak
2. Iowa City residents! Send your pirate youth over to the Public Library!
3. I feel like SOPA was more than an emotional issue. SOPA would have allowed takedowns of sites that contained any links to other sites containing pirated material. Let's pretend we want to discuss piracy, and we include a link to a site like Pirate Bay. Now (under SOPA), this entire blogspot site has become illegal.
The humor behind the math stems from the assumption, on he part of those calculating the "copyright math", that individuals who are pirating would actually make a legitimate purchase if pirating were not possible. These are ghost figures and that is how they can so humorously be figured out of proportion compared to actual conjectured profits.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the math sounds silly when Reid puts it the way he did, but Reid didn't put forth any alternatives. Is there a better way for the industry to present copyright issues to the public?
ReplyDeleteI also fear that Chris is right, how much of musical copyright solutions (court cases against piracy) benefit the big companies in the industry as opposed to the artists themselves?
Coming from a former frequent violator and charter user of Napster, I have come full circle and expect to pay for others products now. Working closely with independent and struggling artists makes it an emotional and personal issue for me.
ReplyDeleteIn American policy debates, numbers of job gains and losses are thrown around willy-nilly. I've come to think they have as little basis in reality as the numbers Reid ridicules.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, there were two week #10s before this, so wouldn't this be week #12?
ReplyDeleteThanks for pointing that out Bruce!
DeleteAnother example of how numbers can be used to "factualize" anything! I think his talk is a great example of how the music companies don't want to give up the the market they had 30 years ago but still want all the new income coming from the marketplace in today's world.
ReplyDeleteWe all know how easy it is to "lie" with statistics. Reid points out that there are some problems with the numbers being tossed about.
ReplyDeleteBut intellectual property rights is a topic worthy of discussion. We read about and talked about this issue in my last two FYS classes. People see shoplifting CD's/DVD's and downloading pirated music or videos as two completely different things.
Legislated values, whether for songs, human beings, or anything else, tend to produce absurdities.
ReplyDeleteAnother point of showing how figures don't lie but liers figure. I agree with Cal. But we do need to try to make our students aware of the copyright issues.
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