From: Ad 

The IP cartel being composed of storytellers....seems to be unable to stop
itself writing works of fiction.....

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

"PIRACY statistics are labelled "self-serving hyperbole" in
a draft government report.

A confidential briefing for the Attorney-General's Department, prepared by
the Australian Institute of Criminology, lashes the music and software
sectors.

The draft of the institute's intellectual property crime report, sighted by
The Australian shows that copyright owners "failed to explain"
how they reached financial loss statistics used in lobbying activities and
court cases.

Figures for 2005 from the global Business Software Association showing
$361 million a year of lost sales in Australia are "unverified and
epistemologically unreliable", the report says.

BSAA chairman Jim Macnamara said the figure was an extrapolation, but other
studies had supported it.

"They're entitled to say they're not convinced, but not necessarily
entitled to say it's unverified," he said.

The study, which says some of the statistics used by copyright owners are
"absurd", will be redrafted after senior researchers disagreed
with its conclusions.

Painting a picture of an industry seething with competitive jealousies, the
report describes how "well-connected Canberra-based lobbyists"
fight for government attention and police time on piracy.

Researcher Alex Malik, working for the AIC under a commission from the
Attorney-General's Department and IP Australia, was particularly critical
of the use of statistics in court.

"Of greatest concern is the potentially unqualified use of these
statistics in courts of law," the draft reads."


Whoops. When is a work of fiction a black lie....?

& then...the dark heart is revealed....

"Some industry groups were reluctant to work with researchers, because
of concern about data leaking to competitors.

Much of that has to do with a fight over access to resources.

"There is a perception among some rights holders that they are in
competition with each other over limited federal government
resources," the report says.

"They fear that if they reveal the nature of their relationships with
government, such as the placement of well-connected Canberra lobbyists,
they will jepordise their advantage.""

Adam

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