[LINK] Piracy stats don't add up

[rchirgwin at ozemail.com.au]

Kim Holburn wrote:

> Peer review anyone?
>
> http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,20713160%5E15306%5E% 
> 5Enbv%5E,00.html

Huh, you can't peer review a "secret sauce" methodology (link to the 
BSA's press release, below, which includes the magic words "proprietary 
methodology").

OK: if I work backwards from the alleged $AU value of $487 million and 
31%, I get a software industry tolerably close to the ABS's scale of the 
software market ...

... if ...

a) If I ignore the *very* explicit warning in the ABS data, that its 
estimates of local software are +/- 10% to 25%.
b) If I accept that all P2P file share is illegal (ie, there's no P2P of 
GNU software)
c) If I accept that all resale via secondhand is illegal (as the BSA 
asserts, here: 
http://www.bsaa.com.au/bsaaweb/main/index.php?pg=media_single&PID=109&ch_table=link7)

My personal opinion of "proprietary methodologies" is that they're 100% 
rayon, sold as silk ...

RC