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Originally Posted by xg4bx
are there any studies that asked pirates "would you buy this if you couldn't pirate it?"
theres still an awful lot of supposition that getting rid of piracy would guarantee a boost in sales. i assume most people pirate simply because the book/song/movie is there and could just as easily go without if they weren't able to pirate it.
yes piracy affects revenue. but the big question is still whether or not pirates=lost sales. are they pirating it for the hell of it or are they legitimate customers who just didn't feel like paying? if people weren't going to buy it anyway how can it be considered lost revenue.
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THe Cynical Musician deals with a lot of the popular arguments advanced that place the blame for the decline in sales elsewhere than piracy in this article:
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An excerpt:
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The final point actually has some merit, but could do with a bit of background. Mr. Roland no doubt recalls that the album format did not set out to stifle single sales. In fact, the single was available throughout the whole of the history of the LP and still is available today, often in many formats, vinyl and CD. The reason it was eclipsed by the album was not a record label contrivance: people simply preferred to buy albums. I recall the single being referred to as an “obsolete musical oddity” in a music magazine, during the early 90s. What Apple has captured now is a combination of two things: the emergence of a new dominant format for recordings, handily tied to the latest trendy musical gizmo that they happen to produce, plus the availability of a huge catalog of recordings at attractive prices, with a pick and mix flexibility. It would be silly, however, to infer that people suddenly switched from buying albums to buying single tracks. That may be true for some people and some albums, but I rather doubt that it is enough to account for the declines. As for “direct correlations” between the sales drop and the introduction of new technology, it is a very dangerous argument to use when the very same technology that made iTunes possible has at the same time spawned the greatest copyright infringement ring in history.
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The Cynical Musician ( who is both a musician and economist)has posted a lot on piracy and using accessible language has devastated the "piracy causes little but no harm" case and the whole "media doesn't need law enforcement but needs new business models, etc" case. Head over there and take a read.