All the crying about piracy is greed: nothing more, nothing less.
These media cartels are going the way of the dinosaur anyway, both with AI generation supplanting them in the next decade (Alexa, generate a crossover episode of SVU and the X-Files), and 'piracy' being normalized with each new generation.
I disagree. Big movie studios can write off piracy, but independent movie studios, with much smaller budgets, can't. It's the same in the music industry.
I knew lots of independent artists in the early 2000s that basically had no career after Napster because nobody would buy their music anymore (but those same people continued to download/listen to it). They also couldn't tour to make a living, because large companies control all of the major venues.
Piracy has forced independent artists to go to large studios to make a living, contributing to the enshitification of the current state of music (and movies).
From a music perspective we have too much music; we have decades of history to stream, and each year more and more is released - ultimately only a few people will be able to sustain themselves with streaming revenue, and indipendent acts will need to survive with live acts and merch until they break through (or accept that they arne't going to become superstars).
Because the potential upside is so huge, many people are willing to gamble on that, much as people buy lottery tickets. Most people will be disapointed.
Piracy isn't theft. It's counterfeiting, which is much worse than theft. If we allowed everyone to counterfeit the dollar and use it, the value would head toward $0 over time. It's the same with all digital goods.
Where else should we apply this logic? If a large company uses GPL/Gnu software in their proprietary application, should we say that there was nothing lost because they wouldn't have shared the code anyway?
When AI gets good enough in the future, should companies be allowed to use the likeness of someone for free? After all, nothing of value was lost, right?
"From a music perspective we have too much music; we have decades of history to stream, and each year more and more is released - ultimately only a few people will be able to sustain themselves with streaming revenue, and independent acts will need to survive with live acts and merch until they break through (or accept that they aren't going to become superstars)."
Streaming is only the norm because of piracy. It's the same with software. Everyone is making software a service. Why? You can't pirate it. This was pretty easy to predict 10+ years ago.
I disagree. Dollars are only useful for their value. Movies, music, and games are enjoyable to "use".
It's no different. If people pirate it, word of mouth spreads and people will go and see it.
No one really buys music anyway, artists make most of their money from shows.
Sharing is normal behavior, the whole concept of piracy as stealing is bananas. No one has a right to charge for every single copy of something in existence, not when it can be easily duplicated. It's entirely at odds with human nature.
In the 90s, artists COULD make money from music. Especially independent artists. Piracy changed all that and forced artists to only make money from shows, which are controlled by large companies.
Those artists are blaming piracy when really it's more likely to do with a shift to streaming and those artists not having the skills to have a strong online presence once physical media started dying out.
There's a strong correlation between the death of record stores and these independent artists starting to lose money.
And besides, in modern day we have more independent artists than ever making money.
I always assumed it was about control, given how media companies constantly attempt to provide alternative methods of distributing media, though only within their very narrow definitions, and how they fight so hard against anything that breaks their control. CSS, Sony's CD root kit, HDCP, etc etc etc
You mean the crying and the greed of the people that don’t want to pay to see movies right
Surely you didn't really let those "you wouldn't steal a car" propaganda films get to you?