The description given always says things like "The cost of their activities run into very many millions in lost profit ... the losses are incalculable,"
This is usually (always?) calculated by taking the list price of the software, multiplying it by the maximum estimate of the total number of copies that might have been distributed illegally and publishing the result.
Of course, this usually (always?) seriously overstates the loss. The estimate of the number of copies is usually taken as the top it might have been -- i.e. the number distributed is usually considerably lower. Furthermore, a lot of the copies distributed aren't used. Additionally, even if it is used -- it shouldn't count unless the person would have bought the software absent the illegal copy. (There is *no* lost profit in a teenager's illegal CDROM copy of an expensive piece of commercial software -- if the teen couldn't have afforded to purchase that software.)
The overstatement of the loss continues with the use of the list price of the software, because software is usually sold at a discount from list. So to be honest (this isn't a consideration when one is trying to get a lot of PR :-) the minimum sales price (or perhaps even the average) should be used.