Pirates accused of undermining US agriculture

Universal has accused file sharing networks of lowering US farm profits, according to The Inquirer. A complaint filed with the US Federal Communications Commission stated that the development of video piracy is driving corn sales down.

Universal spokesman Rick Cotton claims that video piracy forces people to watch movies at home. Accordingly, if people don’t go to movie theaters, they don’t eat popcorn. Since they don’t eat popcorn, corn prices are falling and farmers are getting poorer.

The Inquirer reports that Cotton could just as well have claimed that video piracy robs carmakers of profit for potential audiences to go to theaters. According to The Wall Street Journal, corn prices are rising annually. In 2006, corn was sold at $ 2.08 per bushel (approximately 25 kilograms), this year the cost was already $ 3.83. If there is any connection between corn prices and video piracy, farmers should only be happy with the development of file-sharing networks, The Inquirer claims.

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