Watch a TED Talk Mocking the $58 Billion Music and Movie Piracy Claim

Online music streaming service, Rhapsody, had their founder Rob Reid give a TED Talk recently. The entire purpose of his talk was to investigate the $58 billion claim that is thrown around by the music and movie industries. Has $58 billion actually been stolen from those industries by pirates like you and me? Reid agrees that it is difficult to quantify the exact numbers, so he looks at how these industries might have deduced their data. However, Reid hilariously shows the major flaws in their logic, and basically proves that piracy costs nothing (okay – I might’ve made a leap there that isn’t supposed to be made).

If you can’t watch or listen to the video at work (or at home for some reason), check out his blog post, complete with references. Otherwise, spend 5 minutes watching the music and movie industries claims get picked apart in comical fashion.