4 ms·

> despite (and some may argue in some cases because of) piracy. A while ago there was an article on HN about the EU hiding the results of a study they ordered

> despite (and some may argue in some cases because of) piracy. A while ago there was an article on HN about the EU hiding the results of a study they ordered into the effect of piracy on actual sales because the study showed that piracy wasn't really that much of a problem. That study showed a 27% displacement rate for films (i.e. for each 100 copies pirated, 27 sales were lost), so going by that study it is indeed "despite of piracy" and not "thanks to piracy". IIRC this is the study: https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/59ea4ec1-a19b-11e7-b92d-01aa75ed71a1/language-en https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/59e... Super-summary: 0% displacement rate for Music, 27% for Film/TV-Series, 38% for Books and -24% for Games (i.e. every 100 copies of a game pirated resulted in an extra 27 legal copies sold!).

tombert 7y ago
I apologize for not making this terribly clear; obviously piracy can be a bad thing, and I'm not arguing otherwise. I certainly think that if you make a product, you at some level should be allowed to monetize and make a profit off of it. That being said, there are plenty of pieces of media that only exist today because of pirated copies being circulated. The immediate example that comes to mind is the Star Wars Holiday Special (though some might argue that that would have been better forgotten). Games like Earthbound didn't do terribly well when they were released (at least not in the US), but due to pirated ROMs being circulated around the internet, and due to the increased popularity of emulation, the game has since received a second wind and has had several re-releases; obviously anecdata doesn't mean much, but I first played Earthbound with a ROM file when I was 13 years old, and when I saw they were putting it on the SNES Classic, it was literally the only reason I bought one. I can't remember where I heard this, but they said something to the effect of "piracy is sort of like bacteria; a lot of it is bad for you, and you certainly don't want too much of it, but some bacteria is necessary", and I think that's a pretty good way of viewing it.
- bloak 7y ago
  It was ordered that all copies of the film "Nosferatu" be destroyed, because it allegedly infringed copyright. Shortly after the alleged copyright had expired a copy was found in a safe. It seems that someone had failed to fully implement the court order: a punishable crime, no doubt, if it was done deliberately, but perhaps it was just incompetence.

tombert 7y ago

I apologize for not making this terribly clear; obviously piracy can be a bad thing, and I'm not arguing otherwise. I certainly think that if you make a product, you at some level should be allowed to monetize and make a profit off of it. That being said, there are plenty of pieces of media that only exist today because of pirated copies being circulated. The immediate example that comes to mind is the Star Wars Holiday Special (though some might argue that that would have been better forgotten). Games like Earthbound didn't do terribly well when they were released (at least not in the US), but due to pirated ROMs being circulated around the internet, and due to the increased popularity of emulation, the game has since received a second wind and has had several re-releases; obviously anecdata doesn't mean much, but I first played Earthbound with a ROM file when I was 13 years old, and when I saw they were putting it on the SNES Classic, it was literally the only reason I bought one. I can't remember where I heard this, but they said something to the effect of "piracy is sort of like bacteria; a lot of it is bad for you, and you certainly don't want too much of it, but some bacteria is necessary", and I think that's a pretty good way of viewing it.

bloak 7y ago
It was ordered that all copies of the film "Nosferatu" be destroyed, because it allegedly infringed copyright. Shortly after the alleged copyright had expired a copy was found in a safe. It seems that someone had failed to fully implement the court order: a punishable crime, no doubt, if it was done deliberately, but perhaps it was just incompetence.