03.08.2012 - 07:50 [ techdirt ]

The Stats Used To Support Cybercrime ‚Threats‘ Just As Bogus As Hollywood‘s ‚Loss‘ Claims

For years, we‘ve highlighted stories about how the claims of „losses“ from the entertainment industry due to infringement are completely fictitious. In the past, we‘ve seen Julian Sanchez go on a hunt to find the origin of some of the numbers being thrown around, and come up with evidence that they‘re based on nothing. For example, claims of $200 billion in losses due to counterfeiting… came from a 1993 Forbes article that just makes that claim with no citation and no backing info. But it became gospel among those arguing there was as problem.