Robbers stop taking CDs and DVDs

It seems that the physical carriers of intellectual property have finally lost their relevance - they are no longer valuable even for robbers. At least, statistics of the London city police testify to it (statistics on house thefts in England and Wales). The diagram shows how often when an apartment is robbed, thieves take away this or that property. For seven years, the popularity of compact discs among robbers dropped from 25% to only 7%. In fact, burglars now take disks no more often than perfume or cigarettes.

The reason is clear. First, the cost of discs has decreased over the years. Secondly, now anything can be downloaded on the Internet. “Although many robberies are committed by addicts in the heat of passion, they are still capable of doing economic calculations,” explains an officer in the London police.

Law enforcement officials say that a few years ago on the street one could see “collapse” with a bunch of disks for sale, now there is no such thing.