11.2.05

The Big Picture: Debate on Downloading

OK, funny time. From a market strategist's blog where he argues with a hedge fund manager :The Big Picture: Debate on Downloading. So we extract a quote from the hedge fund manager:

The effects of piracy on the economy and the world are just getting started. Music company EMI told investors today that it would miss sales projections for the year by about 9%. Trading in England, the stock took a huge hit on the news, wiping out billions of dollars of value.
Music content sales such as records, tapes and CDs have long trended with the broader economies. With global economies steadily growing the last couple of years, the music business should have been on fire. Alas, that is not the case, and the single biggest reason is piracy.

Gee, that downloading is sure bad for stocks. Oh, no, wait. It turns out that EMI is going to miss predicted sales because Coldplay are going to be late with their album.

I sure hope that the investors in his hedge fund sue his ignorant little ass off.

Idiots Copyright Business Too-Sad-To-Be-Funny

2 comments:

Ritholtz said...

Call it part of the process -- we debate different positions, try to challenge each other's perspective, in order to clarify an investment thesis. Call it a process.

That said, my argument has long been that the music industry's woes have been around long bedfore P2P. Their problems are mostly self-inflicted.

They are truly one of the most poorly managed industries in corporate America . . .

Pacanukeha said...

Umm, the reason it took so long to reply was due to the shock and amazement at Barry's response time, yeah, that's the ticket.

So Barry - As is obvious from my rant, I agree with your position. The outburst in the last line is due to the fact the the "opposition" are so often and so easily proved to be either wrong and/or deliberately misleading.