Piracy robs L.A. economy, study says

At least that's what a publicly funded study to be released today concludes, making the case that bootleg DVDs, CDs, prescription drugs and other merchandise such as handbags cost nine industries across Los Angeles County more than 100,000 jobs and about $5.2 billion in lost sales in 2005.

Conducted by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., the study lists the motion picture industry as accounting for about half the losses -- $2.7 billion -- followed by the recording industry, which sustained $850 million in losses, according to the report.

"Every dollar lost to piracy represents wages lost for the hardworking families that make the Los Angeles entertainment industry the envy of the world," Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said in a statement.

As the study's authors acknowledge, the numbers are little more than educated guesses about an activity that is inherently difficult to track. Purveyors tend to avoid government surveys, and data are typically scarce or unreliable. Analysts have noted, for example, that someone buying a pirated DVD on a street corner may not necessarily have done so in lieu of purchasing one at a Best Buy.

Nonetheless, the report, titled "False Bargain: The Los Angeles County Economic Consequences of Counterfeit Products," is the most comprehensive to date on piracy's effect specifically in Los Angeles. Officials aim to use the study as ammunition in pushing for harsher penalties for piracy and getting support for a broad-based task force to tackle the problem.

An earlier report commissioned by the Motion Picture Assn. of America found that the global motion picture industry lost $18.2 billion in 2005 as a result of piracy. The association's data also were used in the most recent study.

Although piracy is a global problem, worldwide losses hit Los Angeles especially because most of the companies whose products are counterfeited are based here.

Villaraigosa and other elected city and county officials who funded the $25,000 study face mounting pressure from major Hollywood studios and record labels to curb the problem.

This week, Los Angeles police seized about 15,000 counterfeit CDs and 1,200 bootleg DVDs from a small record store in Los Angeles. Recent raids in Los Angeles have turned up pirated versions of Jay-Z's "Kingdom Come" and Mary J. Blige's "Reflections," and such movies as "Happy Feet" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest."