Why does piracy pay the economy stupid

Aside from being the No. But there has been a dramatic drop-off in attention to a story that as recently as a month ago looked likely to dominate the media narrative in much the same way that the presidential election did in There are several possible explanations for the decline. In addition, the earlier narrative depicting an economy in free fall and conjuring up comparisons to the Great Depression has been mitigated by some signs the crisis may be bottoming out, at least in certain sectors.

But the absence of bad news may be refining that truism slightly. Signs of an improving economy, however tenuous, are a smaller story than a collapsing economy. The Tea Parties: Cable Wars. How much and what kind of news one got about the April 15 tea parties depended on the news outlet or platform. The story got minimal play in the two more traditional old-media sectors. And as was the case during the election season, the protests revealed large editorial and ideological chasms among the cable channels.

Trying to put matters into perspective, an AFP story that appeared on Yahoo! If the tea party phenomenon evoked some debate over newsworthiness, piracy was a storyline many news organizations got their hooks into. Coverage of piracy on the high seas was the No. The numerous storylines included a focus on Captain Richard Phillips, who was rescued when Navy sharpshooters killed the three Somali pirates holding him hostage.

There was some ideological skirmishing in talk show circles about how much credit, if any, should be given to Obama. And some coverage looked at what happens next in the newest overseas crisis for the administration—a suddenly intensifying battle against piracy. We "don't know"? Nice cop out. Why not include Lee's or Sanchez' conclusion? Any time I hear a think tank, like Cato, mentioned I shutter. Credibility lost almost instantly.

Even if they're right, I wouldnt believe a Catoan. Thank you for writing this. It echoes much of my thinking on "IP Piracy" and the assumptions of how much damage it does to the economy and even individuals. Interestingly, it may create some free rider issues, but on the whole the fundamental assumptions that are made in estimating the damage to the economy are highly suspect, and likening IP infringement to theft is equally disengenous.

Thank you, for putting the spotlight on some of the Industry assumptions which are clearly erroneous. This link from the Swiss Government is in German but Google will translate it for you if you don't know German.

The interest part is they concluded that piracy doesn't change the spending on media very much, though it probably shuffles the winners and losers a bit. My own thought is that a lot of improperly copied material is stuff that would not have been purchased at full price anyway, and that there is a significant marketing component to downloaded material. I also believe that a lot of such material is downloaded either because it is otherwise unavailable, or because the legal packaging is inappropriate.

There are also derived works of merit that aren't properly licensed but that bring value as derived works, and may prompt sales of the original. Of course there has been counter research in recent years that shows bittorent users actually being higher spenders on music and movies than none users.

For balance I would love to know whether the counter research is just as bogus and flawed or what the reality really is I would guess somewhere in the middle? Rather than just dismantling the flawed measures and data of the SOPA lobbyists which is just too easy a target , what should be the measures both for and against by which the pros and cons of a world with or without privacy can be compared? My family 'pirates' a great deal of media because we live outside our native culture and it is simply not available where we live.

I recently sat down and worked out how much money we had 'saved' by pirating, vs. Unsurprisingly, the 'piracy' victims have received more from our subsequent investment in their products as a result of our 'piracy' than they would have had we not known about their product or engaged with it so by downloading it.

No matter how you look at it, piracy is still theft and under copyright laws, it's still illegal. I wonder how many would feel the same way, if it was their time, effort, money and other work that went into the development, production and distribution of the "work" and had people stealing their product? We already have laws that govern the theft of copyrights and I don't need big brother to protect me. There is no doubt some people download instead of buying.

In other cases, the music or movie is unavailable. Try to buy the Star Wars Christmas Special or the soundtrack for obscure movies. How is IP worth anything if it is not available for sale?

It's worthless. Worse yet are debacles like the movie "Sita Sings The Blues". The director used an obscure torch singer from the 30s thinking the music was in public domain. One her heirs showed up and sued for more money than the film was worth. The director finally agreed to hand over all profits then released the film to public domain. The film was pretty much spoiled and no one made any money except the lawyers.

It was stupid. A successful film could have rekindled interest in the singer and made money for the rights holder. Jim, as a person who works pretty heavily in the open source software field, it makes me extraordinarily happy when people copy the work of my associates and I. The more our work is copied, the more popular we become, which in turn opens up massive new opportunities.

After years in the life, pirates had become accustomed to long periods of drunken tedium interrupted by binges of extreme violence and spending.

Jack Hitt wrote a good piece in the New York Times Magazine a while back about modern-day pirates ; recently, such incidents seem to be on the decline.

When "Dead Man's Chest" came out 2nd Pirates of the Carribean installment- Summer it seemed likeke there were two dozen or more pirate books which were all released at once, riding that wave I mean, who doesn't like Pirates, really?

It appears that the piracy described in this blog entry was a reaction to the autocratic traditions within the British Royal Navy. What about examples of piracy other than that which is Brit-derived? Do you have any idea when the British pirates first enacted workers' compensation?

Was the system of compensation aboard pirate ships also derived from British Royal Navy practices or traditions? In other words, was there institutionalized naval liability before pirates began their system of payouts?

Thanks for the link to the New Yorker article written by Jim Surowiecki. Since pirate lifestyle and seafaring culture are not high on my list of interests, it was fascinating to learn that for operations other than battle, the day-to-day business was left to the quartermaster.

And aboard pirates' ships, there were trials by jury. What is the most famous pirate jury trial, and about what issue? Do Talty or Leeson know? Linda, having read both books mentioned Talty's book and the Republic of Pirates by Colin Woodward, the British navy and merchants at the time were notorious for simply forcing sailors into servitude.

There was no compensation for injuries sustained on the boats, and if a sailor would perish during the journey, his family would likely see nothing from it.

Additionally, sailors would get paid quite poorly and often in the form of IOUs which they could turn in for money at a later date. During the War of Spanish Succession in the early 's, it was quite common that a sailor would be just arriving in a dock after a trip on a merchant ship just to be impressed by the Navy. This policy of impressment was actually one of the factors leading to the War of , the British seizing thousands of sailors from American vessels.

Players vote on the doubloon dispersal scheme after a successful conquest. They would have tons of data to wade through.

At one point, Flynn pays off each of his pirate crew with a base salary plus a specific bonus for particular wounds received. Apparently, Warner Brothers had a fix on pirate workman's comp seventy years before Matt Mason wrote his book.