| Pirates of the Digital Millennium |

Pirates of the Digital Millennium
How the Intellectual Property Wars Damage Our Personal
Freedoms, Our Jobs, and the World Economy
By John Gantz and Jack B. Rochester
Financial Times Prentice Hall
IDC Inside
The idea for Pirates of the Digital Millennium began with IDC's landmark
research for the Business Software Alliance in 2003 on the economic impact
of software piracy (see www.bsa.org/idcstudy). In this study, captained
by IDC Chief Research Officer and book co-author, John Gantz, IDC quantified
the impact lowering software piracy would have on the jobs, tax revenues,
and contribution to GDP in 57 countries. One chapter of the book, Global
Fallout, reviews and augments this research with other studies and academic
material. The book grew out of the authors' desires to expand upon IDCs
research with more research and study of the entire issue of digital piracy.
Since that 2003 study IDC has gone on to become even more involved in
software piracy research, conducting this year's annual study for the BSA
of software piracy rates and economic losses in 86 countries. (see www.bsa.org/globalstudy.)
IDC has also conducted custom consulting engagements on software piracy
by segment and product type, studied deterrents and solutions to software
piracy, and examined the channel dynamics of piracy.
In related research IDC studies the changing nature of software licensing,
the emerging area of digital rights management and content security, the
impact of peer-to-peer networks on commerce and society, and developments
in online gaming and entertainment markets.
For the book itself IDC's Global Research Organization conducted a web-based
survey of over 900 individuals in 30 some countries on their behavior and
attitudes toward music and movie downloading. The results were quite counter-intuitive.
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