>...Paulo Coelho made a Russian translation of The Alchemist available without permission from his publisher. As a result the sales in Russia skyrocketed from 1

>...Paulo Coelho made a Russian translation of The Alchemist available without permission from his publisher. As a result the sales in Russia skyrocketed from 1,000 books a year to over 1,000,000. I feel uncomfortable with this example because it was the author who chose to give his book away. I'm of a mixed mind about piracy in regards to media content. I don't agree with it but it's the only thing that manages to force content owners to rethink their business model. If it wasn't for Napster and the like, there wouldn't be an iTunes or Spotify. If it was up to them we would still be paying $20 for a CD. The same is happening with TV and movies and I'm sure they will be facing the same situation as broadband gets faster. I don't include the print industry in this because they are more lost than any other because it's so poorly run.