The $8 billion iPod. Seriously? Comedian Rob Reid looks at how digital piracy and digital rights violations cost revenue and jobs. And here’s how pirates stay always a step ahead from content creators. Another great video from TED Talks.
Comedian Rob Reid’s graph uses newly-discovered copyright math to demonstrate that ringtone piracy has cost the music industry roughly $60 billion.
That is only the tip of the iceberg. Reid demonstrates that we’ve also lost 373,000 jobs, leaving the industry with negative employment, a very rare phenomenon.
Of course, digital technology is the cause of this dire situation. In the late 1990s it was possible to load ten songs into a portable music player. Since songs are worth $150,000 each, a budding pirate could carry concealed contraband worth around $1.5 million.
Pirates and their affiliates have seen to it that storage technology has improved raplidly. Today, a young felon can carry over 530,000 stolen songs worth $8 billion to school.
Where will it end? I would not be surprised if pirates began robbing the producers, actors and crafts people who make movies and television shows next!
