Is the press finally catching on to the crap numbers spewed by anti-piracy trade groups?

Anyone who has been around technology for any length of time, and can actually think for themselves, will know that all those questionable studies quoted by groups like the anti-piracy lobby group AFACT are nothing but bull crap. The problem is that mainstream reporters and media companies either aren’t technologically astute enough or they are in the pockets of those trade groups; and as such some really stupid studies get a lot of press.

That might be changing though, unless of course it is a News Corp property, as some reporters are starting to question these studies touted as being indisputable fact by groups like AFACT. Miles Peterson from the Canberra Times is one of those journalists if this quote from TorrentFreak is any indication.

Using journalists in a propaganda war orchestrated by foreign companies wasn’t a very pleasant thought to Petersen.

“The story behind the stories, both those that appeared in News Corp media and TorrentFreak’s balancing rebuttal, stayed with me, as did a series of worrying questions. Are AFACT, the DEAA and IPAF being co-ordinated by the same group of people? Are these people being directed by the Motion Picture Association of America, as the WikiLeaks cable suggested? ” he writes.

“What stuck with me most was a similar concern to one uttered recently by Australian Greens leader Senator Bob Brown. Did a group of journalists put together a press campaign based on a biased study supplied by a lobby group that represents their own employer?”

Let’s not fool ourselves here, these trade groups like AFACT, RIAA, MPAA have a vested interest in convincing politicians about how dangerous piracy is, even to the point of making them think it kills babies.