You keep seeing this same old stupid calculation pop up again and again in copyright discussions: Wireds Adario Strange says that Google hosts the full movie Pirates of Silicon Valley, and because it has been viewed 350,000 times, and because the DVD costs $14.49 at Amazon, the movie distributor lost about $5 million (350,000 * 14.49). Lets ignore for a second those theories saying online video services are like free promotion for the real thing (with the potential to increase sales), and lets ignore the discussion of whether or not Google has an agreement to distribute the movie (for the sake of argument lets say they dont). But… no one lost $5 million in sales because not everyone viewing the video for free would have bought it if it wasnt available for free.
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April 24, 2007 12:38 pm
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