Judge Rules Pirated Music Not Lost Sales, Might Boost Music Sales

For the last decade, the music industry has beat in our head that every album that gets pirated is a lost sale. This can't be further from the truth as so often it is just done out of opportunity. Despite this, a Spanish judge has dismissed the idea that pirated copies equal lost sales. He went on to suggest that they might actually be a marketing tool that could later promote a purchase. He stated:

"it is not possible to determine the damage and corresponding compensation due to loss of benefits to the rightsholder, for the simple reason that customers of pirated copies of music and movies, when making the purchase of pirated copies, externalize their decision not to be customers of music and movies as originals, so there is no profit that could have been gained. In other words, those customers either buy a pirated copy at a low price or they don't buy an original at a price between 15 and 20 Euros.

"In any case, reversing the legal argument, it is conceivable that a customer, after hearing or viewing the pirated copy, may decide to purchase the original, finding it to their taste, so that the sale of pirated copies, far from harming, benefits the market for original items."

So Spanish judges get it while american judges beat their children with belts and boards for piracy.

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Tags:  riaa, music piracy   

Jason Fisher    November 03, 2011