Media Piracy in Emerging Economies is a report released by the Social Science Research Council

Social Science Research Council

The Social Science Research Council is a U.S.-based independent nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing research in the social sciences and related disciplines...

 in 2011. It contents that “high prices for media goods, low incomes, and cheap digital technologies are the main ingredients of global media piracy. If piracy is ubiquitous in most parts of the world, it is because these conditions are ubiquitous.”

Reception

The Guardian

The Guardian

The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

s Cory Doctorow

Cory Doctorow

Cory Efram Doctorow is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who serves as co-editor of the blog Boing Boing. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of the Creative Commons organization, using some of their licences for his books...

 commented that "This report and its researchers are rare examples of academic rigour in a world of special pleading and cooked industry statistics." Computerworld

Computerworld

Computerworld is an IT magazine that provides information for senior IT leaders. It is published in many countries around the world under the same or similar names. Its publisher is International Data Group. Computerworld serves the needs of IT management via print and online...

 UK blogger Glyn Moody

Glyn Moody

Glyn Moody is a technology writer. He is best known for his book Rebel Code: Linux and the Open Source Revolution . It describes the evolution and significance of the free software and open source movements with many interviews of all the notable hackers.- Selective bibliography :* Digital Code of...

 wrote that "Given the scope and rigour of this report, I think it will go down as a decisive moment when the discourse around piracy changed fundamentally, with the content industries being forced, finally, to explain and justify their methodologies, rather than simply stating their claimed results." Reuters

Reuters

Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...

' blogger Felix Salmon

Felix Salmon

Felix Salmon is a financial journalist, formerly of Portfolio Magazine and Euromoney, and a blogging editor for Reuters. He was also author of a Wired cover story on the Gaussian copula....

 also hailed it as "The best report ever on media piracy". Canadian academic Michael Geist

Michael Geist

Michael Allen Geist is a Canadian academic, and the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-Commerce Law at the University of Ottawa. Geist was educated at the University of Western Ontario where he received his Bachelors of Laws before going on to get his Masters of Laws at both Osgoode Hall Law...

, writing in the Toronto Star

Toronto Star

The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...

, found that "While setting the record straight on piracy myths is valuable, the report's most important contribution comes from chronicling how piracy is primarily a function of market failure

Market failure

Market failure is a concept within economic theory wherein the allocation of goods and services by a free market is not efficient. That is, there exists another conceivable outcome where a market participant may be made better-off without making someone else worse-off...

." Gilberto Gil

Gilberto Gil

Gilberto Passos Gil Moreira , better known as Gilberto Gil or , is a Brazilian singer, guitarist, and songwriter, known for both his musical innovation and political commitment...

, former culture minister of Brazil, was quoted saying the study is “required reading for anyone concerned with copyright and enforcement, or with the challenges of cultural globalization".

Magellan Media's founder Brian O'Leary invited to comment by O'Reilly Radar blogger Jenn Webb, was only in partial agreement with the report, noting that "Concerns about convenience, availability and usability (the absence of onerous rights restrictions) factor into individual decisions about what and whether to pirate media products. This doesn't refute the Social Science Research Council's claim that higher prices in lower-wealth countries can lead to piracy. It does suggest that it may not be enough to just lower prices. I do agree fully with the SSRC's conclusion that enforcement has limited impact." Ars Technica

Ars Technica

Ars Technica is a technology news and information website created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, science, technology policy, and video games. Ars Technica is known for its features, long articles that go...

s Nate Anderson emphasized that the SSRC "report debunks alleged link between piracy and terrorism" put forward by a 2009 report of the RAND Corporation and funded by the motion picture business.

External links

• Report page at SSRC
• Talk given by its editor, Joe Karaganis at the Berkman Center (includes video)
• The Simple Economics of Piracy (Or, Would You Pay $136 for Tron Legacy?) article by Karaganis in The Huffington Post
  The Huffington Post
  The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...
  
  ; comment by Reihan Salam
  Reihan Salam
  Reihan Morshed Salam is an American non-fiction writer and policy analyst. He is a columnist for The Daily and lead writer of National Reviews "The Agenda" blog, as well as a policy adviser at e21 and a contributing editor at National Affairs...
  
  
• Interview with Karaganis by Felix Salmon