Are illegal downloads on the way out?

Found on Ars Technica on Sunday, 09 April 2006
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When not producing reports about the state of software piracy in China, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) produces reports about the state of software piracy among children. Their newest report is interesting because it claims that children (ages 8 to 18) are now downloading significantly less music, movies, and software than they were only two years ago.

As with many BSA statistics, it's not clear that these are truly representative of the total situation. A recent report from research firm Big Champagne, for instance, found that P2P usage has doubled in the last two years, not declined. As even the BSA admits, as kids grow older, they download much more material.

If you'd like to see what your kids might be receiving, you can check out Garret's copyright adventures in this brief comic that shows kids just how "uncool" copyright violations are.

Sure you can prove a lot with statistics; whether it's true or not is a different matter. That comic works with assumptions and false statements, like calling copying stealing. Copying is not stealing; that's why there is a different word for it. With the same logic, you steal if you make a xerox of some paper. There is also the assumption that every copy is a lost sale, which is simply wrong. Not to mention that the original crusaders didn't bring peace, but pain and horror; but perhaps that's exactly why they chose them. Besides, I wouldn't trust a ferret that looks like it's on drugs and jumps out of my monitor at night.