83
6 votes
Aug 14, 2015

Yes and no. While piracy is generally bad, it is considered a crime, and it is really hard to quantify the extent of the damage it causes, a certain level of piracy has some positive effect.

The most important thing is that piracy introduces a competition - manufacturers of digital goods must invest in quality to be competitive on the market (companies compete not only with other companies but also with the pirates). As we all know, competition is always good for the consumer (it lowers prices, increases quality etc.). On the other hand it lowers the revenue of a company, and it can even bring it to ruin.

Generally I would say that piracy is not bad, or not as bad as some people think. I vote "no".

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-1
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1 vote,
Aug 14, 2015

I really feel that everything should be free on the Internet. So-called piracy only affects 1/2 percent of "sales" anyway.

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0
0 votes,
Aug 14, 2015

Piracy has an actual effect however Who is paying for it? The movie actors that get paid Millions? The Cinema's that constantly raise prices? Sure do well and people will flock to you. No problem however in other cases its not always clear cut starving artists need money to survive but in order to support them we have to give 60 cents per dollar to their record label. Obviously we're getting reduced innovation especially with good disruptive companies like Netflix or Pandora/Spotify. Piracy is bred out of need. Sure every society has free loaders but do you honestly think piracy at the levels its reaching now worldwide is all people that want free stuff just because its free?

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