[LINK] We're all pirates (again)

[Richard Chirgwin]

And I really wasn't paying attention ... the story I originally linked 
was just a spinoff from the Herald's big piracy puff-piece:

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/billiondollar-booty-of-the-online-pirates-20110305-1biqe.html

Depressingly bad.

RC

On 6/03/11 12:10 PM, Frank O'Connor wrote:
> Wasn't it Joe Namath who when asked what the difference was between 
> grass and Astroturf said, "You can't smoke AstroTurf."
>
> To my mind the reporter was using grass and Sphere Analysis was using 
> AstroTurf.
>
> Also, Sphere Analysis was supposedly commissioned to research this by 
> the industry body - which makes the 'research' less than objective 
> (and as fanciful as previous 'guesstimates') ... whilst the 
> methodology needs a little examination (pluck a number from here, a 
> number from here, and a really big unrealistic number from here and 
> multiply them to get the desired result. Then don't test it against 
> anything, just publish the PR ... and some dopey lazy member of the 
> Fourth Estate will pick it up as news.)
>
> It's what passes for journalism in this country that's the problem ...
>
>                     Regards,
>
> At 8:57 AM +1100 6/3/11, Richard Chirgwin wrote:
>> Does anyone else get sick of journalism as lazy as this?
>>
>> http://www.theage.com.au/technology/nation-of-unrepentant-pirates-costs-900m-20110305-1bix5.html 
>>
>>
>> One question - just one - would have helped. Like "who is Sphere
>> Analysis" (who conducted the research)?
>>
>> Answer: a business name registered in NSW last November. Wouldn't that
>> raise the suspicion that the whole thing is astroturf?
>>
>> (It's more than about time that ASIC published the ownership of
>> companies and business names online for free)
>>
>> RC
>>
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>
>