It is a hard thing to estimate the cost of the possible (if any) loss that companies might get from piracy. The industry argument goes that each copy pirated is a lost sale; yet this seems an over-estimate as there must be people pirating media artefacts who would not consume it is they had to purchase it. A counter argument goes that the pirates are not people who were ever going to pay, so nothing is lost - which also seems an argument too far in the other direction.