Statistical Anomalies in Reports Originating in the EU

by Tom Koltai on March 29, 2010 08:26PM (EST)

Introduction
Over the last several months a number of reports have been published on the impact of file sharing of popular music on Europe's macro economy.

The purpose of this paper is to identify a number of arguments that have been made that are provably false or present data that is contrary to other so-called factual data that is diametrically opposed the data in these reports.

The question is what the rationale might be for publishing reports that can be so easily disproven. While we can only surmise what is behind this, we have a very deep concern with the concept of publishing and promoting information that could possibly be treated as fact and which could then be used to argue changes in legislation governing various rights that ordinary citizens may have, particularly with respect to their ability to have an ongoing internet connection.

The fundamental problem with reports of this kind is that they create an environment where logical arguments are made based on false hypotheses. And as any good student of logic understands, if you start with a false hypothesis it is impossible to reach a provably true conclusion.

The pursuit of changes to legislation based on false hypotheses, if successful, would almost certainly lead to random unforseeable events and trends taking place that are totally contrary to the philosophical development of the human race and would overturn hundreds of years of enlightenment thinking.

For this reason we believe that the analysis of these recent reports should be carefully considered by readers interested in the legal structures that govern both content and communications as they pertain to citizens.

Unfortunately, the details of our response to these various reports now contain many pages [188] of dry, boring statistical data and there is unfortunately no real way to proffer a rebuttal suitable to present in a Blog format that would;

a)       Be of interest to the great majority of Perceptric readers.
b)       Be presented in a continuous format suitable for cross-referencing and comprehension.
c)       Be taken seriously by anyone in either Government or Ministerial advisory roles.

Therefore  over the next few days, highlights (the more interesting bits) of our research will be published as a series of articles here on Perceptric, and when complete, the entire report  will be tendered (in a more formal fashion) for consideration and comment by academics amongst the global community.

Report Number 1.

Building a Digital Economy : The Importance of Saving Jobs in the EU’s Creative Industries

The study focuses on three questions :

1) What is the contribution of the creative industries to the European economy in terms of GDP and jobs ?
2) What are the consequences of piracy on retail revenue and jobs ?
3) If current policies do not change in the EU, what will these losses be by 2015 ?

We urge readers to read this report in its entirety, so that the highlights of our research in answer to many of these reports findings will have relevance.

MUSIC PIRATES IN CANADA….(1897)

by Tom Koltai at 05:01PM (EST) on March 14, 2010

Dug out from the archives of the New York Times….. June 13, 1897 NYTimes

American Publishers say they are Suffering by Copyright Violations

There-Steps Taken for Redress.

“Canadian pirates” is what the music
dealers call publishing houses across the
line who are flooding this country, they say,
with spurious editions of the latest copyrighted
popular songs. They use the mails
to reach purchasers, so members of the
American Music Publishers' Association as-
sert, and as a result the legitimate music
publishing business of the United States
has fallen off 50 per cent, in the past twelve
months. Their investigation has revealed
that all of the most popular pieces have
been counterfeited, despite the fact that
they are copyrighted, and by unknown publishers
are sold at from 2 cents to 5 cents
per copy. though the original compositions
sell at from 20 to 40 cents per copy.
It is estimated by the publishers that fully
5,000,000 copies of songs were printed and
Bold in the month of May.

T. B. Harms, the music publisher, said
yesterday that the American publishers
had held a conference lasting three days
last week, and a committee had been appointed
to fight the pirates. This committee
consists of Isidore Witmark, T. B. Harms, and
H. W. Gray.

It was explained that the business is
worked in Canada in connection with newspapers
which publish lists of music to be
sold at, say, 10 cents a copy. The Post
Office box given belongs to the newspaper,
and it takes half of all the money sent as
pay for the advertising, and the other half
goes to the “pirate,” who sends the music
by mail.
If the Post Office authorities stop such
mail matter because it infringes the copyright
law, it is returned to the publisher,
after thirty days, under our law, and the
only one who is out is the person who
sends the 10 cents. The Canadian law is
less lenient, as it provides for the destruction
of contraband matter sent over the line
by American violators of copyright law.

So it would appear that in1897, the pirates were in league with the Newspaper publishers, the only people that had printing presses.

It would appear that the crime of Music Piracy in 1887 was facilitated by Technology. Curiously it was todays Media Barons ancestors that facilitated the piracy by providing the technology...

"Have technology, will pirate...."

Not much has changed then.
Hattip: http://www.homepagedaily.com/Pages/article7146-music-piracy-in-1897---from-lucas-jensen.aspx

References:

"Music Pirates in Canada" (NYTimes PDF file)

Keywords:  canadian pirates, AMPA, P2P, Newspaper Barons assist Music Pirates