An economic loss amounting to billions as well as unemployment by the thousands is under the control of anyone: it's just one simple click away, according to a new report.

Released in August by the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI), the report estimated the American economy loses $12.5 billion every year because of music piracy. Included in this figure are the earnings of all the jobs lost and the tax revenue the government misses out on.

According to the report, U.S. workers lose 71,060 jobs per year because of the global issue of music piracy. The workers, including people in the recording industry as well as those in retail industries, in turn lose $2.7 billion in earnings every year.

"I don't see those numbers as being big by any sort of national standards," said Dirk Mateer, professor of economics. "There are a lot of new technologies that are displacing people."

By comparison, the IPI found in 2006 that motion picture piracy causes a loss of $20.5 billion and 141,030 jobs per year.

Legal ways of accessing digital music, including iTunes and Napster, are new programs and are not included in the report."There are always jobs lost in the transition to any new technology," Mateer said in regards to not just piracy, but also digital music.

Stephen E. Siwek, author of the IPI report, said, "piracy harms not only the owners of intellectual property but also U.S. consumers and taxpayers."

Bartlett Cleland, director of the Center for Technological Freedom under the IPI, said music piracy is a lost economic opportunity.

He said peer-to-peer software for music sharing doesn't add anything to the economy.

"They are not spending anything on advertising. Everything is word of mouth, word of e-mail," Cleland said.

However, some students continue to pirate music and admit they are completely aware of the repercussions.

"It seems people are always going to be looking for the easiest way to get something," Jay Yarlagadda (freshman-pre-medicine) said.

Priya Farooq (freshman-pre-medicine) agreed.

"It's a lot easier to do because you don't see the people you're harming, and it's harder to get caught," Farooq said.

Even after seeing the statistics, Farooq and Yarlagadda agreed that the numbers did not dissuade them from continuing to download music to their computers illegally.

Music piracy is illegal, but for unknown reasons, it is not being given the proper attention, Cleland said.

"There are two kinds of piracy: blatant and malicious," Cleland said.

"Malicious are the guys who steal something, they break the copy protection, take it to some factory. They have not created anything. They've broken the law, then they take it to a corner and sell thousands of copies for a thousand bucks, he said."

The statistics yield different opinions as to whether the retail industry, in regards to hard media, will eventually become obsolete.

"Digital sales are still small compared to hard media," Cleland said.

"I had to buy records and then I had to buy CDs. I think there is no shortage of music lovers out there and people who want to buy music," he added.

Christie Walsh (junior-public relations and English) said she thinks there will always be a demand for hard media with the older generation.

"I still want hard copies, I just can't afford them," Walsh said.

Mateer said he thinks hard media would eventually disappear.

"It's old technology and old delivery systems," Mateer said.

"It will largely become obsolete. It doesn't make sense that you would choose a storage device when you could digitalize your collection," he said.