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Experts have testified at a hearing that industry figures relating to losses due to piracy are most likely exaggerated.
The hearing run by the US International Trade Comission (USITC), acting at the behest of the U.S. Senate's Finance Committee, is trying to work out concrete figures for losses in relation to intellectual property in China, but experts have told them to ignore industry figures.
It's based on the same arguments that you've heard on these pages before, that not every person that pirates something will have automatically bought that something if the much cheaper (or free) pirated or counterfeit version wasn't available. "It seems a bit crazy to me to assume that someone who would pay some low amount for a pirated product would be the type of customer who'd pay some amount that's six or 10 that amount for a real one," said Harvard Professor Fritz Foley. He also added this warning, "Be careful about using information the multinational [companies] provide you. I would imagine they have an incentive to make the losses seem very, very large."
Intellectual Property law professor Peter Yu backed up Foley's point, and even said that counterfeit goods may be helping the US economy by allowing consumers to purchase cheaper versions of good that otherwise they wouldn't have been able to afford, and employing US workers and contributing to the overall economy in the process.
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The hearing run by the US International Trade Comission (USITC), acting at the behest of the U.S. Senate's Finance Committee, is trying to work out concrete figures for losses in relation to intellectual property in China, but experts have told them to ignore industry figures.
It's based on the same arguments that you've heard on these pages before, that not every person that pirates something will have automatically bought that something if the much cheaper (or free) pirated or counterfeit version wasn't available. "It seems a bit crazy to me to assume that someone who would pay some low amount for a pirated product would be the type of customer who'd pay some amount that's six or 10 that amount for a real one," said Harvard Professor Fritz Foley. He also added this warning, "Be careful about using information the multinational [companies] provide you. I would imagine they have an incentive to make the losses seem very, very large."
Intellectual Property law professor Peter Yu backed up Foley's point, and even said that counterfeit goods may be helping the US economy by allowing consumers to purchase cheaper versions of good that otherwise they wouldn't have been able to afford, and employing US workers and contributing to the overall economy in the process.
More:
