With the copyright industries, namely the music, movie and software people, all screaming about the dangers of piracy, and how jobs are being lost all over the place, and with the global economy as it is, you would think these would be industries in severe decline. But that's not the case at all, at least according to the International Intellectual Property Alliance's new report.
The goal of the report is to highlight the importance copyright industries are to the U.S. economy, no doubt to scare politicians into giving them even more favourable treatment, but it only ends up highlighting that far from industries on the edge of disasters thanks to the pesky Internet and people who use it, they're actually doing pretty well, considering.
Core copyright industries, the ones that create content, is not only surviving through the current recession, but it's doing it much better than most other industries it seems. Real annual growth rate is at 1.10%, compared to only 0.05% for U.S. GDP.
And growth is not only in the U.S., but in foreign markets, the ones that the MPAA and RIAA constantly tells us is being totally destroyed by piracy, revenue is actually up from $128 billion in 2007 to $134 billion in 2010.
Actually, all of this makes sense, since during a recession, certain entertainment industries actually do well - movies, music, as people spend less money on things like travel and cars, and more money on home entertainment.
And for all the talk of job losses, pay in the industry is actually 15% to 27% higher than the U.S. average. And while some job losses have occurred, as you would expect during a major recession, there were only 1.5% fewer "core copyright industry" jobs between 2009 and 2010. So much for massive job losses due to piracy!
But despite massive profits, a strong performance during a recession, the copyright industries are still spending a fortune lobbying Congress to pass ever harsher laws, to get the government (and thus, the tax payer) to foot the bill for their pantomime crusade against the dangers and evils of online piracy.
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