The primary reasons for piracy are:
- Content is unavailable in a certain area or country.
- Avoiding annoying DRM on something they have purchased.
- People simply don't have money to buy the product.
- To try a product before purchasing when there is no trial available.
Isn't piracy stealing, and ruining the music and movie industries?
The definition of steal from thefreedictionary.com is:
Steal
1. To take (the property of another) without right or permission.
2. To present or use (someone else's words or ideas) as one's own.
File sharing is creating a digital copy, a replica of the original. You don't take anything from anyone, you copy it, so by definition it's not stealing.
When someone downloads something for any of the four reasons noted above, nobody loses money. Now it would be ignorant to suggest that companies don't lose any sales to piracy. There are some people who just want things for free, even if they have the ability to purchase them.
But it would also be ignorant to say that companies don't make any money from piracy either. There are multiple studies including one by the Canadian government and a Norwegian business school which show that pirates purchase more music legally than those who don't pirate music.
Record labels claim that piracy is the reason why revenue has declined slightly, although it's reasonable to believe that buying a digital single for $0.99 rather than purchasing an entire CD for $18 when you only want a few tracks could be to blame. There was also a growth of the music industry in 13 countries in 2009, most of which havn't cracked down on pirates.
In 2009 box offices in the U.S. and Canada generated $10.6 billion in revenue, a new record, and global ticket sales rose 7.6% according to the MPAA. It's obvious that piracy isn't going to bankrupt Hollywood anytime soon. Piracy has also helped indie films gain exposure and popularity, prompting an increase in DVD and Blu-ray sales.
