Take this for what you will. I weigh all statistics on piracy against a pinch of unicorn's hair (Okay, it's not that bad), but I figure, with so many people using the numbers to point another finger at yet one more way in which nefarious Chinese are undermining the US economy, this is relevant:

Aaron Schwabach, a law professor at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, correctly cautions us against taking seriously any of the numbers bandied about with respect to intellectual property piracy in his forthcoming article, "Intellectual Property Piracy: Perception and Reality in China, the United States, and Elsewhere." (Thanks to China Law Blog for the tip.)

But even if you do accept the numbers, a close look at them provides some surprises for those who have bought into the concept of China as the Great Rogue Pirate Nation.

Schwabach deconstructs a study commissioned by the Motion Picture Association that determined that U.S. movie studios "lost" $6.1 billion to piracy in 2005.

Eighty percent of those "losses" came from overseas.

The three countries at the top of the list? Mexico, the United Kingdom and France.

China came in sixth. But if you crunch the numbers per capita, then China falls way down the list.

And then, of course, there's the American-on-American piracy problem.

Just as more Americans have died from contaminated American-grown spinach than from imported Chinese produce, domestic piracy probably costs the U.S. content industry more money than piracy in any other country (although not more than in all other countries combined).

Schwabach is a lively writer and he backs up his thesis, "The problem of IP piracy in China is really not as bad as all that," with voluminous footnotes. It's a good read, especially if you care about making careful distinctions about the dreadful threat posed by Asian piracy.

On a side note, I've been asking myself if the new trend in improving 3D technology in movies would have come about so fast if Hollywood hadn't been put under the pressure of creating a less easily pirated product.

When I mentioned this to Fanfan, she said she wouldn't care to see Beowulf, even if it was in 4D. I agreed, but imagine if guys like Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich), Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, La Science des rêves) or Tim Burton got their hands on it. Sure, I was fascinated when I saw The Polar Express in 3D IMAX, but I can't wait to see what it will look like when some really artistic works get a 3D treatment.