Internet Piracy and the Impact of that to The Film Industry

The movie industry continues to vigorously combat both DVD and Internet piracy of its films domestically and overseas, urging foreign governments to crack down on illegal DVD factories and toughen laws on Internet file-sharing. Hollywood moviemakers, armed with the new study pointing to piracy as having ripple effects on the U.S. economy, want Washington to recognize the larger problem and address it. The movie industry had previously focused on piracy's impact on lost sales of legal DVDs and online films, estimated at about $6 billion per year, according to a previously released study commissioned by the Motion Picture Association of America, the movie industry lobby. Given those facts, the study says, movie piracy causes a total lost output for U.S. industries of $20.5 billion per year, thwarts the creation of about 140,000 jobs and accounts for more than $800 million in lost tax revenue.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/28/1640.html