Piracy: Theory and Reality

Participate in a few MP3 discussion forums or mailing lists, and you'll realize there are two contrary forces at work in the MP3 pirate scene. In my opinion, one is theory and one is reality.

Theory: The industry (officially represented by the Recording Industry Association of America) has held artists financially captive for nearly a century, leaving them desperately underpaid, ignoring genuine talent while promoting prefabricated, ready-made stars to the hilt, and grossly overcharging for compact discs. It's time for artists to reclaim control over the means of production and distribution. Viva MP3!

Reality: While a few sites--such as the venerable MP3.com--have created a true haven for unsigned artists who want to take control of their own destinies, the reality is that the vast majority of MP3 files downloaded from the Web are illegitimate, pirated copies of copyrighted works. While accurate statistics are not available, it would be safe to say that more than 90% of MP3 traffic on the Web is in illegal material. Despite the revolutionary fervor of the theory, most people get into MP3 because they can steal without getting caught.

Ironically, many people involved in posting or downloading illegal files don't think of it as stealing. People justify the theft to themselves by hiding behind excuses such as "the record industry has screwed us for years--it's time to get back at them." Regardless of the fact that this justification does not wash (stealing is stealing, no matter how much you dislike the victim), there is a second point that many people fail to make to themselves: When you participate in the pirate scene, you're not just screwing the recording industry, you're also screwing the artists out of their royalties. The odd thing about this situation is that, presumably, one will only want to download music by artists whom they like and respect. So why do people steal from artists they like? Who knows.

There's a flip side to this equation: Many people use the "free" music scene as an analog to the shareware concept--try before you buy. And indeed, numerous informal polls have shown that people do discover artists they would not have discovered otherwise, and they proceed to go out and buy CDs by those artists. There are two problems with this line of reasoning:

The intentions may be noble, but the fact remains that neither the label nor the artist has given permission for this transaction. If a label or artist puts tracks online with the intention of raising awareness, that's their business. But it's not the business of individual fans to create a shareware scene out of someone else's intellectual property.

While some additional sales may be generated by listeners discovering music they may not have found otherwise, those sales are positively dwarfed by the number of people amassing collections of music they've never purchased and have no intention of purchasing.