One Step Ahead

Australia is one of the worst offenders in illegal movie downloads, according to a recent survey. Almost one in five Australian Internet users have downloaded a movie illegally, and a similar proportion are buying less films now than they did in the past.

Take these results with a large grain of salt, because the survey was conducted on behalf of the Motion Picture Association of America, which has a vested interest in complaining about movie piracy. While I don't necessarily disagree with the results quoted, I do take issue with the dollar figures attached to some of these surveys. Some organisations extrapolate these figures to claim billions of dollars in losses. These figures are usually determined by calculating the equivalent value in legitimate movie sales. But this is a distorted number, because it's certain that not everybody who downloads music, movies or software illegally would have spent full price on the legitimate version.