Politicians love talking about the war on drugs using similar math. For instance, when 10kg of cocaine are seized, they report the street value of the cocaine,

Politicians love talking about the war on drugs using similar math. For instance, when 10kg of cocaine are seized, they report the street value of the cocaine, when in truth the wholesale value is what has been lost to the trafficker. Similarly, pirated content does not represent lost retail sales. People who pirate content would not necessarily purchase it legitimately were it available to them.