Apparently, Bittorrent is as bad as Al Qaeda; equates the economic threat of Web piracy to the threat terrorism poses to national security.

NBC Universal chairman and CEO Bob Wright urged the nation's political and business leaders to attack piracy and counterfeiting. In a speech titled "A Time of Reckoning" before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Wright said the threat piracy poses to the country's economic security was nearly equivalent to the threat terrorism poses to the nation's physical security.

"Five years ago we learned, tragically, that our physical security is under attack. Since then, we've been a nation at war, with immense resources mobilized to fight a difficult struggle against an elusive enemy. Today, I want to suggest that the second pillar, our economic security, is also being challenged."

"At risk is every sector of the economy where creativity, innovation and invention drive the creation of economic value and high-wage jobs," Wright said. "If we do not step up our efforts to protect the foundation of future economic growth, our nation and our children have a bleak future. This issue needs to be moved up on the agenda of every business leader, every trade organization and every congressional office."

And the hyperbole just continued on-and-on-and-on. I edited it out after I read that piracy not only takes money out of the economy but increases the federal deficit as it costs $837 billion in lost tax dollars, $5.5 billion in lost wages and costs 141,030 jobs.

I find the logic of people like Mr. Wright unconvincing.

First, most of these studies detailing a severe economic impact assume that each pirated movie or software equates to a lost sale. This is very short-sighted because someone may try something if it is free but never contemplate it at all if it cost something. I might be willing to watch old reruns of The Outer Limits, but please don't expect me to pay to do that.

Second, sampling something for free often leads to increased legitimate sales downstream. This is true for music, video, and software. I have yet to see any study that tries to back out legit sales that may have arose from the fact that a 'pirated' copy of something created a new fan. Think about an obvious situation: a kid downloads a song for free, likes it a lot, becomes a fan of a group that used to be unfamiliar, and later attends a concert (paying for an arena ticket).

Here is a very real situation I witness recently. A couple had never seen the Fox hit show called 24. A different friend downloaded the first season for them to watch. They became hooked. That addiction has lead to DVD purchases and loyal fans of the show (increasing the audience). So, according to Mr. Wright, that single act probably cost our economy $70 (the list price of season 1). Ignored is the value to Fox of another viewer to their ad rates and other DVD sales.

Perhaps piracy is a net loss to companies, but the impact on the bottom line is no where near as bad as some would have you believe. Mr. Wright, take a chill pill, stop linking piracy to terrorism, and maybe you might come up with ways to take advantage of this trend and increase sales for yourself.