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Ask HN: Is piracy actually a problem? (SOPA)

7 points by nupark2 ↗ HN
In all the media coverage, it seems to be taken as fact that foreign piracy is something that must be solved.

However, looking at year-over-year profits for media companies, it doesn't look like they're doing poorly. In fact (excepting a blip due to our economic foibles) they're doing better than ever.

Is this assessment correct? If so, why isn't the media picking apart these claims?

1 comment

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joelhaus
Economist, Dean Baker, thinks piracy concerns are overblown: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3482767

That said, it's generally not in the economic interest of the incumbent media businesses (particularly the TV Networks, a.k.a. media aggregators) to present the case against the SOPA/PIPA legislation. This is because they are trying to protect their existing revenue streams that come from business models which rely upon traditional media distribution, the internet presents a challenge to this.

When (if) the protests against SOPA/PIPA are presented, it's always balanced against the "fact" that "everyone agrees piracy is a problem that needs to be addressed".