Xmas Console Sales Affected By Piracy. No, Seriously.

[wraggster]

It's all fun and games using 'Piracy' to describe copyright infringement when you want to reframe the debate and equate the sharing of intellectual property with aquatic larceny, but what happens when your actual ship-based armed robbers yo-ho-ho into view? What then, Mr cognitive linguistics smartypants?

The holiday games market is under threat this year from actual, proper Somali pirates who are preying upon cargo ships off the Horn of Africa and beyond. Sadly, this lot seem to be eschewing Cornish accents and peg legs in favor of AK-47s and huge ex-Soviet trawler ships.

Shipping firms are now faced with the choice of braving pirate-infested waters or taking costly detours that can delay goods by several weeks.

"Despite all the publicity over piracy it will really hit home when consumers in the West find they haven't got their Nintendo gifts this Christmas," said Sam Dawson of the International Transport Workers' Federation.

http://kotaku.com/5087922/xmas-conso...y-no-seriously

[devdj]

they should just find these Somali bastards and nuke them here and now we don't need them lol

[iniquitous_beast]

Umm...I thought that the Panama Canal was supposed to make "rounding the Horn" obsolete. Why sail around Africa when you can cut right through Central America? Unless you are an Australian ship en-route for Madagascar, there is little evident reason to sail south of the Horn.

EDIT: Upon reading the comments in Kotaku, I've realized that I'm quite a moron for overlooking the obvious. Africa is south of Europe, not America. I was mixing up South America's geographic location with that of Africa. Japanese and Chinese freighters en-route to western Europe must sail south of Africa. The only other real alternative route is the long way around the world (through Central America's Panama Canal). Pardon my error. My geography class (back when I was twelve) was far less interesting than the cute redhead who sat in front of me.

[quzar]

Japanese and Chinese freighters en-route to western Europe must sail south of Africa. The only other real alternative route is the long way around the world (through Central America's Panama Canal).

I don't know what the political situation or cost of it is nowadays, but there's the suez canal too...

[darkriku2000]

I thought that companies flew the stuff over

[quzar]

I thought that companies flew the stuff over

It's MUCH cheaper to ship on boats. Most of the goods that travel from one continent to another travel by ship. The only stuff that goes by plane is time sensitive or people.

[iniquitous_beast]

I don't know what the political situation or cost of it is nowadays, but there's the suez canal too...

You're right. That makes me wonder why companies decide to ship their products around the horn, especially considering the potential losses they might incur from genuine piracy.