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Pirated music ranked on global index of illicit markets

Contributed by an Anonymous Source. Posted by chris on Wednesday, December 13, 2006 at 11:00 AM (EST)

As the RIAA continue to claim that music piracy is causing a serious impact on their business, (even going as far as to attempt to lower artist royalties), we've received a list indicating the top-ranked contraband products in the world. So where do you think illegal movies and music fall? You'll be suprised.

Pirated music is actually tied with "Illegal fishing", and is well below "Illegal Logging", "Counterfeit Auto Parts", and even....gasp..."Trash Smuggling". You can see the full list here or

1 Marijuana

2 Counterfeit Technology Products

3 Cocaine

4 Opium/Heroin

5 Pirated Web Videos

6 Counterfeit Pharmaceutical Drugs

7 Pirated Software

8 Human Trafficking

9 Amphetamines/Meth

10 Animals and Wildlife Smuggling

11 Pirated Movies

12 Ecstasy

13 Illegal Logging

14 Counterfeit Auto Parts

15 Trash Smuggling

16 Human Smuggling

17 Art and Antique Smuggling

18 Smuggled Cigarettes

19 Gas and Oil Smuggling

20 Counterfeit Clothing

21 Pirated Music

News (117 comments)

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Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way. Seriously.

Someone (December 13, 2006)

Hahaha. It all makes sense now.

2+ Replies

Someone (December 13, 2006)

everything i love they don't like! D:

Someone (December 13, 2006)

Including human trafficking?

Someone (December 13, 2006)

isn't that the best kind of trafficking?

Someone (December 13, 2006)

isn't that the best kind of trafficking? mmmm...humans.

stuxmusic (December 13, 2006)

*chuckle* and *slap*

Someone (December 13, 2006)

oh man. it all seems so cool.

PatThetic (December 13, 2006)

pirated music is ruining record sales.

that's a fact.

6+ Replies

Someone (December 13, 2006)

But you see, I don't notice it when the band and the art they create excite people enough to actually care about them. This whole "music downloading" problem is a thing with major lables- Where they face the fact that churning out endless, meaningless pop culture sludge in the digital age means that they may not make as much money as they used to.

In the end, though, the profits they make are still undeniable. One person buying a Kelly Clarkson CD just payed for at least 40 of those to be made.

-Will

El_Mugroso (December 13, 2006)

touche'

tenwestchaser (December 13, 2006)

I would be inclined to agree. It seems that all of the people I know who download music typically only download the "hit songs" of the time. Its the mainstream acts who are putting out hits like Fall Out Boy and Lil' Jon who are typically being downloaded (atleast to what I have experienced). Everyone I know just downloads the hits of the time in order to 1) play at a party or 2) not want the whole CD they just want the hit song. They weren't going to buy the cd anyway even if they didn't have the option of downloading it. They would have found someone else who had the cd. So whatever. People like me who are really into music and really into the bands I listen to still buy cds, go to shows, buy t-shirts etc. It seems like people are sill going to shows and buying merch for all types of artists so the record companies are the ones missing out on their c

show rest of comment

OctEgon (December 13, 2006)

You've experienced downloading Fallout Boy and Lil' Jon??

RELEASE THE BEES!!! ATTACK MY PRETTIES!! ATTACK!!!

coffinfullofnails (December 13, 2006)

"Release the dogs...no wait release the bees...release the dogs with the bees in their mouth so when they bark they shoot bees"

SkolarX (December 13, 2006)

that first line made me think of something, if more artists put effort into the packaging of the cd, there wouldn't be as much of a problem with people downloading because they would want the whole package. the last tool album is a perfect example. i know people who don't even like the band who bought it because they wanted to look at the package

I-type-poorly (December 13, 2006)

The latest by Beck is a good example of this as well.

Someone (December 13, 2006)

"bought it because they wanted to look at the package"
I'm even more immature than I thought. That made me laugh.

SkolarX (December 13, 2006)

yeah, that was a fine bit of engrish i managed there. should have hit preview at the bottom and taken a look at that before i posted, i guess

Someone (December 13, 2006)

Yeah, the packaging for As The Roots Undo by CTTS is incredible.

ChokingVictim (December 13, 2006)

I know I should have an intelligent retort, but all I have to say is that Tool sucks.

Fuzzy (justin) (December 13, 2006)

I'll make sure my friends who can't tour, pay their bills and get axed from their independent labels know that you've figured out that it's only hurting major labels. That'll probably make them feel good.

woodandiron (December 13, 2006)

I think the impact on independent labels and artists is very very negligible. Independent labels can usually put out albums for much cheaper than any major record label and thus fans are more likely to buy the album. Fans of independent artists are usually more involved in the "scene" or what have you and will make the step of either purchasing the cd or going to the show that the artist is performing at.

The main thrust of RIAA's attack on illegal downloading is on the young teenagers that download all the main singles of the huge mainstream artists.

Someone (December 13, 2006)

That's because your friends suck and hence don't have a loyal fanbase.

Someone (December 13, 2006)

Well... let me say that I've never profited a buck off of album sales yet my band has been on countless tours. I think your friends need to get a little more initiative. If they're waiting for Doghouse Records to buy them a tour bus, they're a bunch of dickholes.

DenBez (December 13, 2006)

For independent bands, getting downloaded is a boon, because it means that there is some buzz around the band. The most successful indie bands that I know encourage free downloads of their music, because it gets the word out.

I'm sorry your friends bands suck.

Someone (December 13, 2006)

what about independent bands that have released a CD on an independent record label? how are the band and label supposed pay for the recording, promotion, advertising and manufacturing without support from music fans?

Someone (December 13, 2006)

sell drugs?

Fuzzy (justin) (December 13, 2006)

Ssshhh.

That stuff doesn't exist for people in the independent music scene. Shit just "happens."

Someone (December 13, 2006)

Art should never be a primary source of income. Nothing wrong with getting payed, but if you're an "artist," you're an "artist" and it shouldn't be anything to bitch about.

-Will

Someone (December 13, 2006)

Maybe you should tell your friends to build a loyal fanbase before releasing something or touring...

And to never expect to pay the bills being in a band. Barely any bands on indie lables get by on selling their music. Fuck, a lot of times it'll put you in debt and the best you can hope for is to recoop the loss. I think the cost for them of free downloading more than makes up for itself in all the plublicity they get.

-Will

Fuzzy (justin) (December 13, 2006)

I'm glad that you think that the cost of people not paying them for their music is outweighed by the potential publicity.

In some cases it's true, some it's not.

That's the problem here. For some people, they have the ways and means to be able to deal with people predominately not paying them for the product. However a lot of people do not have these ways and means.

This is why punkrock is often times made up of "kids from the suburbs"; they're the ones able to afford to tour and charge cheap admission and give their shit away for free.

That's an over-simplification, but the truth is that every single band's position is going to be different. It could be that on their first album they need you to buy but on their second they don't, or vise versa.

I'm just saying that to take some rigidly polar stance on any sort

show rest of comment

Someone (December 13, 2006)

youre a moron and youre friends band is retarded, punk shows are cheap becuase people who attend them wont pay over 10 dollars to hear maybe 1 or 2 good bands and 2 or 3 local filler bands(who only charge liek 5 bucks for their own shows).

its a punk show not diana ross you dumbshit

2nd merch is given away becuase usually bands know someone who has a screen print or a button maker, and only charge for materials since theyre close, even if not, its what? 10 bucks for 200 buttons? i know bands who have just panhandled to fun raise theyre merch.

its not cheap becuase there is a large influx of suburban kids, those kids spend thier money on overpirced crap at hot topic malls ect ect. this is punk, not pop, its the nature of things to be cheap, its all synonomouse

FuckYouOiOiOi (December 13, 2006)

like who?

misterspike (December 13, 2006)

No, shitty music that no one really Cares about is what's killing record sales..

Tahoejeff (December 13, 2006)

The Horror!!!

Someone (December 13, 2006)

I'm actually suprised conterfeit clothes smuggling isn't higher on the list.

-Will

4+ Replies

Someone (December 13, 2006)

A counterfeit jeans ring operating out of my carhole!

Someone (December 13, 2006)

"The GARAGE" Hey, fellas, "the GARAGE". Well, oh-la-di-da, Mr. Frenchman.

Someone (December 13, 2006)

carHOLD

misterspike (December 14, 2006)

You're not working Hard Enough.

spalmer (December 13, 2006)

All of those things are punx.

1+ Reply

spalmer (December 13, 2006)

Wait, maybe not human trafficking

Someone (December 13, 2006)

In my opinion, the RIAA are a bunch of cock-sucking, wannabe, cry-baby, sissy fucks who can go fist themselves.

sickboi (chris) (December 13, 2006)

Couple of questions, as I couldn't figure it out when I came across this...

1. Is "trash smuggling" when states illegally export trash to other areas?
2. What is the difference between "Pirated Movies" and "Pirated Web Movies"?

2+ Replies

skaboom (December 13, 2006)

Just a guess, but
Pirated movies: Burned DVDs sold in black markets in China
Pirated web movies: Movies distributed through p2p and YouTube

sceneholocaust (December 13, 2006)

From what I know from my International Environmental Policy course, trash smuggling is when companies pay big money to impoverished companies to dump toxic waste and such onto their shores. They transfer the waste and pay a decent amount to dump it because the country's laws in which the company does business in state that this type of waste must be accounted for. So, instead of paying out the ass for polluting and causing damage to natural resources, as well as the burden of paying for health concerns, they ship it to some poor ass country who is willing to take the health risk. Doing this is illegal and that's what makes it an illicit business.

Someone (December 13, 2006)

Personally i always makes sure i download every single record that the RIAA are somehow associated with.

2+ Replies

Someone (December 13, 2006)

You must have a giant collection of really shitty music then

Someone (December 13, 2006)

Burn!

Someone (December 13, 2006)

Yeah well that's the negative aspect of it kind of.

Someone (December 13, 2006)

I'd like to take a shit in the collective mouth of the RIAA.

GutterRock (December 13, 2006)

This might be the most useless list ever.

"As the numbers are based on illicit market activities, the numbers will include a high level of uncertainty. A majority of the figures will be based on estimates and will be difficult to verify."

ilikepunkrock (December 13, 2006)

How is opium so high? That doesn't seem like a common drug. And where are mushrooms? I hear that people on the east coast don't have access to shrooms.

6+ Replies

skaboom (December 13, 2006)

Mushrooms are everywhere. They aren't on the list for the opposite reason: they're so easy to grow, they're mostly distributed on a very local level. You can grow the damn things in a couple days.

Someone (December 13, 2006)

12 Ecstasy

skaboom (December 13, 2006)

Excellent copy/paste skills.

IKnowNothing (December 13, 2006)

This is supposedly a "global index" so it's not just the U.S. I'd assume opium is big business to countries like Afghanistan (or at least it was). Shrooms probably don't yield as high a profit.

baseball (December 13, 2006)

it's no harder to find shrooms on the east coast than anywhere else

Someone (December 13, 2006)

Opium doesn't just count for straight opium, its the base that heroin and other opiates are made from, so i would imagine that counts for a lot more than you'd expect

ChokingVictim (December 13, 2006)

I don't know about the East Coast as a whole, but it's a bitch to find them in the Virginia Beach area.

At least so far for me.

Someone (December 13, 2006)

Yarrrr! a pirate's life for me!

cantsidejamie (December 13, 2006)

1) Can someone explain the difference between "Human Trafficking" and "Human smuggling?"
2) I find it surprising that more humans are trafficked and/or smuggled than cigarettes.

5+ Replies

Someone (December 13, 2006)

Why would you need to smuggle cigarettes? Meanwhile, I go down to San Diego once a month to replace my gardner.

Someone (December 13, 2006)

What happens to the old gardeners?

Someone (December 13, 2006)

They fall asleep and it's impossible to wake up sleeping mexicans. I have about 9 sleeping mexicans under my tree outside right now. It's only a matter of time before Carlos joins the rest of them.

Someone (December 13, 2006)

Here in canada the government taxes you out the ass for a pack of smokes. After tax, you're paying about 10 bucks a pack.

So people smuggle them from places on your side of the border, where they only cost 2 or 3 bucks a pack.

Someone (December 13, 2006)

We should just trade cigarettes for pills for old people.

Someone (December 13, 2006)

Human trafficing is when you take people someplace as a slave or a sex worker. You buy and sell them, the money comes from someone wishing to purchase a person. Human smuggling is like "coyotes" in Mexico. They get paid to sneak you across a border so you can live somewhere else, like our beloved U.S. of A.

punkbytheounce (December 13, 2006)

I think it's based on the money made by counterfeiters/lost by legit businesses from doing it than how often it's done.

IKnowNothing (December 13, 2006)

And havocscope.com gets its info from where? I'd just like to know the legitimacy of the article.
These seems like Michael Moore or Ann Coulter style statistics.

2+ Replies

Someone (December 13, 2006)

it seems a lot of the souces they used were united nations documents. ie, public information that they reviewed and compiled a list based on their findings.

really, it's quite easy to find out where they got their information from. i'm not saying it's accurate or not, but the answer to your question is a matter of spending less time than you spent typing up your coment investigating.

IKnowNothing (December 13, 2006)

Ouch, burned by an anon poster.

Someone (December 13, 2006)

my name's andy. it really wasn't meant to be a burn. you seemed to show a genuine concern for the legitimacy of their claims. just suggesting a slightly different approach & pointing you in the right direction. i hope it helped.

Someone (December 13, 2006)

itunes is a ripoff anyway. a thirteen song album is roughly the same price as a CD and you don't get artwork and the sound quality is lower. Also, it is the user's responsibility to maintain their PC and internet connection as well as back up the mp3's.

The user has to maintain the infrastructure for the same price and get diminished quality in return. Also, you have to jump through hoops to transfer the MP3's to your next PC. Mp3's shoudl cost about $.15-$.30

www.slsknet.org

3+ Replies

Someone (December 13, 2006)

or you could just download songs from most of the bands listed on this website from Russian websites for about 9cents a song, totally legal under Russian licensing and usage laws!

OctEgon (December 13, 2006)

Not for much longer. The Russian Government is shutting it down.

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/29/012244

Someone (December 13, 2006)

Please post russian websites, for I dare not search Russian on google.

OctEgon (December 13, 2006)

In Mother Russia, Google Searches You!

baseball (December 13, 2006)

hahaha

Someone (December 14, 2006)

legalsounds.com, gomusic.ru - still active - i used them yesterday to get the new mewithoutyou record and Borat soundtrack

TheOneTrueBill (December 13, 2006)

"Home taping is killing music."

1+ Reply

Someone (December 13, 2006)

Yessir, Mick Jones.

Scootz_McNasty (December 13, 2006)

Counterfit alcohol???

"Well, there was no alcohol in that beer. That was non-alcoholic, so I'm gonna have to bust you on that one, too."

name it.

1+ Reply

Someone (December 13, 2006)

Adam Sandler-I'm So Wasted

Cannsaw (December 13, 2006)

i ams da crimenel

2+ Replies

JustLikeDelilah (December 13, 2006)

Hey jake!

Cannsaw (December 16, 2006)

Hey Tyler!

OctEgon (December 13, 2006)

Maybe if Major Record Labels put marijuana in their CD releases, music piracy wouldn't be a problem.

1+ Reply

Someone (December 13, 2006)

...........Brilliant!

Someone (December 13, 2006)

You know, I think human trafficking should be our biggest concern, since most of the others are just economical (well, excluding illegal logging, fishing, etc, of course.)

2+ Replies

OctEgon (December 13, 2006)

Just because it's not at the top doesn't mean it's not as important. It's just ranking the most widespread piracy

Someone (December 13, 2006)

I could bring the country out of debt with the amount of weed I smoke.

Someone (December 13, 2006)

I don't know what's worse -- this or using "Rock the Casbah" in a shitty cell phone commercial.

4+ Replies

Someone (December 13, 2006)

rock the catbox?

OctEgon (December 13, 2006)

I thought it was "Lock The Cashbox"

Someone (December 13, 2006)

I wouldn't know, that commerical sucks.

notfeelingcreative (December 13, 2006)

God, I hate that commercial!! And I don't even lke that song.

Someone (December 13, 2006)

Fuck. How many Clash songs are gonna be ruined for me by commercials? A rough estimate would be nice.

OctEgon (December 13, 2006)

All of them.

usversusthem (December 13, 2006)

Damn, that was rough.

Someone (December 13, 2006)

Counterfeit Lighters - 30 percent of market

Worst counterfeit item ever, right next to counterfeit batteries.

sceneholocaust (December 13, 2006)

Bomb the Music Industry! free show tonight in Athens, GA!!! For the first time in my life I'm glad I live in Georgia!

1+ Reply

Someone (December 13, 2006)

fuck youuuuuuuu

LushJ (December 13, 2006)

Trash smuggling huh? No wonder the garbage trucks smell so bad and are so noisy- the refuse companies can't afford basic upkeep thanks to all you dirty trash pirates!

minus_20_scene_points (December 13, 2006)

tonight i'm going to go home to my illegal log cabin, light up an ilegal oil lamp (for ambiance), chain smoke my illegal ciggarettes, pot and opium...all to relax from my illegal kidney transplant. maybe i'll have a few of the humans i trafficked back fan me or dump my trash in an orphanage.

but so help me god, i'll do it all while listening to the panic! at the disco CD i bought from Best Buy.

2+ Replies

Someone (December 13, 2006)

well played good sir, well played

Someone (December 13, 2006)

i second that statement.

wearestillalive (December 13, 2006)

Pirated software is worse than human trafficking. Brekaing news breaking news breaking news thanks riaa.

Someone (December 13, 2006)

dear god:
legalize pot ASAP
KTHX

1+ Reply

Someone (December 13, 2006)

God can't read.

ChokingVictim (December 13, 2006)

I wish LSD was on this list, that shit's so hard to find.

Coldwaffles (December 13, 2006)

pirated music is rarely marketed.

Someone (December 13, 2006)

I'm looking for a good place to go to "plunder me tunes" any suggestions. I'll only down load emo in hopes to destroy it and hot topic.

1+ Reply

Someone (December 13, 2006)

torrentscan.com

Someone (December 13, 2006)

surely human smuggling and human traffiking are one and the same?

Someone (December 14, 2006)

pirated music lowers sales because now we can realize when an album has only one good song.
Anyway, some of this things shouldn't be illegal!!
We want our burns we want our drugs!

houdinii (December 14, 2006)

I must say, not only are all the people who's music is pirated more popular, they probably make a whole helluva lot more money due to the "pirates" friends being dupped into actually paying for the music at places like iTunes. Where ther eis one pirate, there are 5 or 6 dumbasses that pay for the music and the pirates are driving the industry. Half of the industries play time nowadays is from a pirate playing music in front of their friends. Exposure is key. Bands like Metallica try to control the play of their music, and look where that got them. In the future there will be no CD's. The market knows that it is much cheaper (damn near free) to distribute music electronically. The same bullshit complaints came with the invention of the tape recorder. I say to the artists nowadays, quit your complaining, it will only do good for the industry in the end. Maybe not for the a

show rest of comment

Someone (December 24, 2006)

not many people sell illegal music. but if you want, theres this guy at the flea market...

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