In this article in the Australian IT, Rick McCallum is given free license to spread his version of reality: that file sharing is taking over the world and will kill the music and film industries. He says that fighting this threat is of an importance equal to the war on terrorism.
But he goes on to justify this stance thusly:
McCallum claimed that 50 per cent of music business revenue had been lost due to file sharing in the last few years. "And that's what's going to happen to the movie business," McCallum said
50%?!? Where did he get this number? I haven't seen a single music industry flack be so bold as to claim this. The RIAA or IFPI quote 5% drops in the last two years. Even those who do claim large losses caused by file-sharing are debunked; the global downturn in recreational spending is hurting everyone and yet these industries seem to believe they're immune to that and that it's the evil file-sharing that is hurting their revenues. Note also the studies that show that file sharing actually increases revenue for the recording industry.
It would have been nice to have seen some objective journalism including some analysis of these outrageous claims. Too much to ask I suppose.