In the WSJ there is a report that they lose up to 6.1 billion dollars worldwide due to piracy.

The study, by LEK Consulting LLC, was completed last year, and people familiar with it say it reached a startling conclusion: U.S. movie studios are losing about $6.1 billion annually in global wholesale revenue to piracy, about 75% more than previous estimated losses of $3.5 billion in hard goods. On top of that, losses are coming not only from lost ticket sales, but from DVD sales that have been Hollywood's cash cow in recent years.
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The new approach reduces the estimated losses in some of the world's most notorious pirate markets, even as it adds Internet-related losses for the first time. China's losses slipped to an estimated $244 million in 2005, from $280 million in 2004 under the old counting technique. Russia's estimate declined by about $10 million. These international results have also generated skepticism about whether Mexico could really be a bigger piracy market than giants like China.

Ummm, exactly. What a load of bullshit. The way I see it, there are three critical flaws to this study. One, it fails to acknowledge that Hollywood has produced an unprecedented amount of total and complete crap movies consistently, week to week, month to month, year to year. Ticket sales are down in the US not because we're downloading movies, but because the movies aren't worth seeing, and certainly not worth sitting through 20 minutes of ads for. Two, any study that shows Mexico is a bigger pirate than China or Russia is simply incorrect. Three, they are treating markets that can't afford the product as legitimate markets. If some 10 year old kid in China is downloading your movie, why do you care? The kid probably can't scrape together the 50 cents it costs him to see it in the theater or the $1.20 to buy the DVD anyway, so why would you include piracy in undeveloped markets as a threat? It's like drug companies complaining about generic rip offs being sold in Africa. Was Africa a valid market in the first place? Did you expect some orphan named Otumbo Motamba in Congo to pay the 8-10k a year to buy the on-patent drug? Why do you care if someone takes a market you don't want?

Anyway, more lying crap from the jackasses suing teenagers, dead people, and old ladies over their shitty product since they don't have the cajones or the cognitive ability to adjust to technology. Instead they sue, legislate, and bitch to protect their outdated and outmoded business model, and it's not the job of government or the courts to protect some industry's business model.

Hey, if I'm wrong, why is porn beating their pants off (haha) without any DRM, suing of consumers, or legislation protecting their product? Maybe it's because they innovate! Maybe because they don't force you to watch 20 minutes of ads first! Maybe it's because they give the consumers what they want! Like boobies, on their computer, burnable to DVD, and at a reasonable price?