NBC's Rick Cotton claims piracy hurts "corn growers"
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24 June 2007 0:15 by DVDBack23
NBC's Rick Cotton claims piracy hurts In another shocking statement by NBC's general counsel, Rick Cotton has once again pushed the limits of what can be seen as sane behavior. He has already said that law enforcement needs to spend more money on fighting piracy then on catching burglars, and bank robbers but now he has decided to show his support for the American farmer.

"In the absence of movie piracy, video retailers would sell and rent more titles. Movie theatres would sell more tickets and popcorn. Corn growers would earn greater profits and buy more farm equipment."

I will leave this article with not much else to say but that movie theaters are doing great this year (read stickied article) and so are corn farmers. For that matter, pirates can still enjoy popcorn at home and I'm sure many do, considering it is much less expensive that way.

Finally, thank you Rick Cotton for another absurd comment.

[url]http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/10165.cfm[/url]
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Piracy more serious than bank robbery, fraud and burglary?

16 June 2007 20:54 by Dela
Piracy more serious than bank robbery, fraud and burglary?According to NBC/Universal general counsel Rick Cotton, today's society is wasting its time battling crimes such as home burglary, bank robbery and fraud. The incredible statement was made to suggest that more effort should be put in to battling piracy due to the financial damage it does to the entertainment industry.

"Our law enforcement resources are seriously misaligned," Cotton said. "If you add up all the various kinds of property crimes in this country, everything from theft, to fraud, to burglary, bank-robbing, all of it, it costs the country $16 billion a year. But intellectual property crime runs to hundreds of billions [of dollars] a year."

The argument is hardly convincing, especially since the industry's own nit-picked reports claim much less than "hundreds of billions of dollars" in losses per year. For example, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) cites a study from Smith Barney in 2005 that puts their annual loss at less than $6 billion.

Also, you might have a tough time finding an example of how somebody was stabbed or shot during an intellectual property crime, whereas people are often attacked and even killed while being burgled and bank robbers do shoot hostages and employees. Perhaps somebody should suggest to Cotton that protecting against the theft of physical property and of course, protecting human life, is more important than intellectual property protection.

[url]http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/10111.cfm[/url]
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.......speechless....