Another Study: Pirates Are Industry's Biggest Paying Customers → Re: Piracy is stealing - plain and simple

I don't disagree but... (and I'm not justifying piracy but...)

If they couldn't pirate, would they buy? The industry has always published huge figures in terms of lost revenue but I have to think that some (perhaps most?) of the illegal activity would not be a sale if perfect DRM was possible.

I think on-line music services that allow folks to buy a song for a buck have probably done more to curtail copyright problems than the rest of the efforts.

When I grew up I used to make "mix" tapes of songs I had recorded from FM radio stations. Although illegally obtaining a digital copy might have greater sonic purity and when you want something, it's faster, I'm surprised someone hasn't taken this software and combined it with an HD FM tuner card and used it to let folks record days/weeks of OTA broadcasts and build a library.

»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PopCatcher

That is the Pirate creed - "I wouldn't have bought it, therefor it is OK" I don't disagree the lost revenue numbers are inflated, but there is lost revenue and this is being made up from the ones that actually pay.

Pirates get a free ride they don't deserve. Perhaps we should call them Stowaways instead (much less sexy). They wouldn't have bought the ticket, but everyone else paid for them to ride.

I have to agree with you.

I have a friend of mine who pirated the entire James Bond Collection. He downloaded a pack that was in 720p quality on the internet. He regularly refers to these movies as his favorites. I asked him about buying the bluray discs and he said that he would never buy them because the complete James Bond collection is around $300.

The pirates creed is more about saving money than anything else.