Congressman Lamar Smith has written a story posted by the Music Industry New Network. His writes about the pirates in history and pirates nowadays and how they differ. As he writes about the losses current pirates cause:
The music industry estimates that annual sales of illegal Compact Discs approach 2 billion units '“ worth $4 to 5 billion. Globally, one in three recordings is a pirated copy. |
The motion picture industry faces huge losses, too. One million movie files are downloaded illegally on the Internet each day. Software manufacturers also take a hit. One out of every four copies of software used in the United States is an illegal copy, resulting in an annual loss to software makers of $2.6 billion.
Pirates affect not only our economic security, they affect our national security. Their profits fund other illegal activities, including terrorism.
Terrorist organizations require considerable funds to maintain their worldwide activities and to purchase equipment, guns and explosives. News stories reveal that terrorist organizations receive hundreds of millions of dollars through pirate operations. For example, police in Argentina and Paraguay uncovered a pirate CD business that has used their profits to underwrite terrorist activities for Hezbollah.
Pirated goods have a large market. The Web is a virtual shopping mall of goods and services, both legal and illegal. But technological advances don't change the fundamental rules of right and wrong.
Because of this the congressman will introduce legislation to update and strengthen the federal criminal code, which currently makes it a crime to traffic in counterfeit labels or copies of certain forms of intellectual property, but not authentication features.
I guess he's not going for the populairity price...
Source: Music Industry New Network
