Piracy

     Let's talk about pirates. Not the "plague of the seven seas" kind, but the digital kind. More importantly, let's consider a notion that not many people think about, that is, if piracy can be helpful. Now everyone has been told that piracy is bad, that pirating steals money from the economy, and that it's morally and legally wrong and that it's unethical. Now, I'm not saying that all that's false, because it's not, but I do believe that piracy can actually help in some cases.
     Illegally downloaded music, movies, and video games are estimated to cost the economy billions of dollars each year-the Motion Picture Association of America estimates their annual losses to be $20.5 billion alone-but can there be benefits? According to this article, scientists in Europe have found that piracy actually boosted online music sales, and another article states that piracy helps create innovation by forcing companies to create new business models and by creating new markets for other businesses.
     For example, when it's discovered that a lot of people are pirating a certain thing, such as a video game, then it forces business owners to think about why they would rather risk getting viruses in their computers than pay for it. Is the price too high? Would they rather get to play a demo before they spend the $60 to buy it?
     Besides that obvious effect that pirating media has, it can also help drive sales like the first article mentioned above stated. For example, if Consumer A only pirates his media, while Consumer B only pays for it, then Consumer A (who can probably see the new media first because of his pirating) will watch/listen to/read/play various media, then recommend it to Consumer B, who will pump money into the economy by buying what Consumer A told him about. This may not be as effective for bigger franchises in the multimedia industry, but consider how useful it could be for getting the word out about new and upcoming music artists, indie games that don't have the money for marketing like bigger companies such as EA and Activision do, or new authors wanting to generate buzz about their first book.
     Yes, piracy is illegal (and unethical, in most peoples' opinions), but it is not without its benefits.

--Megan Commings