I think the reason to the strong reaction against the term "potential lost sale" is because this is often used by the *IAA to then massively overstate the losse

I think the reason to the strong reaction against the term "potential lost sale" is because this is often used by the *IAA to then massively overstate the losses from piracy. It has the potential to be a lost sale, but the question is how likely was that person to buy the product if an illegal version had not existed? For example, without piracy, many of my friends (young twenties/teens, so we grew up with piracy) wouldn't have the same taste in music or movies without piracy because we simply would have never found a lot of the stuff we now greatly enjoy. The chances they would have purchased a good deal of their favorite media without piracy existing are utterly minuscule, and to say it's a possible lost sale somewhat glosses over the details, although it is technically correct. That's not to say all piracy would never be purchased, but I think that's the case for a lot of piracy. This is just my personal opinion, but I believe I've seen more statistics that point this way than.