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September 11, 2008
Maybe Piracy Isn't So Bad After All?
Monika Ermert wrote an article, "Symposium Calls for an End of Binary Discussion of Righsholders Versus Pirates," for Intellectual Property Watch. In it, she discusses the sometimes unintended benefits of piracy on the entertainment industry.
One example is the tecnobrega industry in Brazil. (See a recent CNN article on this topic). Musicians and studios have "skipped normal distribution lines" used by big labels such as Sony, and instead, made deals with street vendors (a.k.a. pirates) to sell their material. This doesn't make much money for the musicians, but the publicity that it stirs is enough to make up for it because musicians benefit from concert ticket sales, higher-quality CD sales, and other income derived from sold out shows.
Similarly, Nigerian video film producers have benefited from pirated videos because they created a demand for DVD and VCR players. These profits allowed the electronics dealers to be able to reinvest that money into more film production.
Ermert's point is definitely taken: Many economies have benefited from the loosened (or ignored) restrictions. But this isn't the answer to the problem of "pirates that steal everything" versus "rightsholders that want to protect everything". People who produce artwork deserve to be compensated directly for their work. They shouldn't have to depend on the possibility that their work will provide them with indirect benefits sometime in the future.
Ermert's discussion sheds light on the debate of intellectual property, copyright, and the indirect benefits of pirating, but it doesn't give a voice to the individual people (the artists) who lose in the exchange. Sure, society and industry as a whole may benefit from these activities, but if we lose the artists in the process, the industry may collapse on itself.
--posted by Maggie Anderson
Posted by colldev at September 11, 2008 12:01 PM