From Wired


The Atlanta Police Department joined with the music and movie industries last week to shred more than 1 million CDs and DVDs that had been seized from street vendors, sending the resulting ribbons of plastic to recycling facilities.

According to Brad Buckles, executive vice president of antipiracy for the Recording Industry Association of America, "individuals selling CDs for cheap on the street corner are not just small-time peddlers -- they are fronts for larger criminal organizations that steal music by the millions of CDs."

Buckles said neighborhood groups that deal in pirated CDs are often involved in narcotics and weapons, so removing these CDs from the black market improves the health and safety of those who live where illicitly copied CDs are sold. He added that piracy "not only affects the creative industries, but takes away valuable revenue generated from legitimate purchases from local retailers and city and state governments."

The RIAA and Motion Picture Association of America estimate that these 1 million-plus CDs and DVDs represent more than $20 million in lost sales revenue, although the discs were almost certainly being sold for far less than $20 each.

I have no beef whatsoever with the RIAA doing this, (in fact, this is the "real piracy" if there is such a thing.) but they better damn well make sure these are truly bootlegs and not used CD's or independent artists' CD's.

There is a much much bigger market in China and other foreign markets that the RIAA/IFPA doesn't do a damn thing about because they'd prefer to sue NON commercial file-sharers.

I honestly believe the labels get a "kick-back" from foreign bootleg sales. (Probably the majority of their sales in fact are laundered this way and reported as "legit".)

Of course their "pretzel logic" about lost sales comes into play...

"The RIAA and Motion Picture Association of America estimate that these 1 million-plus CDs and DVDs represent more than $20 million in lost sales revenue, although the discs were almost certainly being sold for far less than $20 each.'

Not only were they not sold for $20 each, but my guess is that if they had been sold for the full price, they wouldn't have sold at all. The reason the market exists for this so-called "piracy" is the fact that the prices of these goods are so OVERPRICED. They sell more on the black market because they are CHEAPER. It's likely that these 1 million-plus CD's and DVD's would have been much less than that had they been sold for full price. So what did the RIAA and MPA really lose?

Right!!

There's no way those pirated CDs and DVDs represented even half of the loss the RIAA and the MPA estimated.
For the very reason you gave (they wouldn't have sold at full price), PLUS the fact that just because a person would buy a discounted (pirated) CD or DVD does not mean they would OTHERWISE have purchased the item in a legit fashion. Yes, as you put it, this really is "pretzel logic" -- the same kind of error in reasoning that is contained in their lament about how much each P2P download of copyrighted material is costing them. Yeah, it's costing them something, but NOT NEARLY what they say. They only inflate their losses to help them gain leverage with the press (free publicity; the press likes drama, so the higher the "losses", the more the news media is interested) AND to better gain the attention of legislators whose aid they intend to enlist for subsequent oppressive legislation they they might want to get passed. (Such as forcing ISPs to ante up, or get their clients to, for the P2P downloading occurring on their networks.)
Even further, Shmoo thinks the P2P downloading amounts to free publicity for their products which can lead to legit purchases, and I believe that is true! I don't know how many times I have heard someone I know say that, yeah, I downloaded a song/album off a seeded network and then I got hooked and went out and bought some of the group's real stuff.

Shmoo also wonders if some of the CDs or DVDs might be re-sale (used).

And then, worst of all, what if some of the so-called "pirated" material is what Shmoo mentioned -- indie stuff??
Damn, that prospect is horrible!
[snarl]

Y'know, a lot of what we write is stuff the general public needs to be aware of, but likely won't hear about. That's what hurts.

This was my favorite part:

"Buckles said neighborhood groups that deal in pirated CDs are often involved in narcotics and weapons, so removing these CDs from the black market improves the health and safety of those who live where illicitly copied CDs are sold."

There's some twisted logic for ya. If you go in, confiscate and destroy the CD inventory of the drug dealer who dabbles in assault rifles, thoroughly pissing him off and putting him in a negative cash flow situation, this will make the neighborhood safer?

That's some fine police work there, Bradley. Way to think it through.

"If you go in, confiscate and destroy the CD inventory of the drug dealer who dabbles in assault rifles, thoroughly pissing him off and putting him in a negative cash flow situation, this will make the neighborhood safer?'

Yeah, I bet they had a warrant for the confiscation of the CD inventory but not for the assault rifle.

"That's some fine police work there, Bradley. Way to think it through."

ROFLMAO!!! Thanks for giving me a great laugh today gdZ.