-> [email protected]Sep 4, 2023

If piracy is such a big deal to media corporations, if piracy is responsible for billions in “lost earnings”, why do they never report this as a final loss on their financial statements? Corporations would miss no opportunity to cook the books.

It’s because there is no such actual loss due to piracy. If it was real, every media corporation would gleefully report themselves as being millions, if not billions, in the red due to “piracy”.

Finance and economics are full of polite fictions, but it turns out that you can’t claim tax offset against something that isn’t real.

Show threadNiceMicro
@yassie_j they don't lose money, they "miss out" on profits, and "missing out on profits" is not part of financial statements in any industry as far as I'm aware.
Sep 4, 2023 at 2:36pmWeb
Show thread -> [email protected]Sep 4, 2023
@nicemicro that’s exactly my point. It’s missing out on profits. But the corporations are happy to spin that as “lost earnings” when they pull their woe is me shtick when doing propaganda about piracy.
Show threadNiceMicroSep 5, 2023

@yassie_j yeah, but the thing is, that if "I made x, and I let you enjoy x for 10$", and you're like "never mind, I found a way to enjoy the x you made and I don't give you anything", I can kind of feel like I got cheated out of 10$ even if you'd never paid me even if you can't find a way to enjoy the x I made without paying me.

The fact that it isn't a financial loss, that doesn't mean that the creators can't rightfully feel like they have been cheated by the pirates.