Piracy May Boost Sales, Judge Concludes

A Spanish judge came to an interesting conclusion in a case dealing with a seller of pirated copies. According to the judge the defendant doesn’t have to pay compensation to the rightsholders because it is not possible to determine to what extent piracy actually decreases sales. On the contrary, the judge suggests that piracy may even boost sales.

Anyone who says that piracy is only helping or hurting content creators is wrong.

Piracy has a different effect in each unique case. Not only does it differ between the gaming, music, book and games industries, but also between the relative popularity of the artists and the characteristics of their audiences.

As we’ve pointed out repeatedly in the past, there are plenty of cases where piracy may have a positive effect on sales. Research has shown that “pirates” are the music industry’s best customers, something EMI’s new music boss Douglas Merrill confirmed earlier this year.

via torrentfreak.com