As intellectual property legislation has become a hotter topic in recent years, you've repeatedly heard a couple numbers bandied around to explain why we need to ruthlessly stamp out innovation and give corporations unending patent monopolies: 750,000 and $250 billion. The first number is the jobs we've supposedly lost to piracy. The second number is the cost piracy supposedly imposes on our economy. You hear the figures frequently: The Department of Commerce uses them, the Chamber of Commerce uses them, the Patent Department uses them. The only problem, as Julian Sanchez explains, is that they appear to be made up.
