EU paid for report that concluded piracy isn’t harmful, tried to hide findings
The problem is that when you talk about "piracy" it's already a totally forgone conclusion that you are biased.<p>People compose music. Should they be compensated every time the music is played? There's no clear "yes" answer here--the counterpoint being that otherwise no one would compose music is disproven by hundreds of years of wonderful music still performed today.<p>People record music and codify this in a big number (a wav file). Should they be paid every time such a number is put in a particular software? Should the number be kept secret so they can be paid by people that want to know it? Of course not, and this is ridiculous. When there were actual (plastic) records, there was an industry whose job was to produce this special plastic. Their business was plastic. They got a license to print special plastic and then sell it. Of course the "designer" of the special plastic wanted a bit of the sale. But now, this industry is only in the business of keeping numbers secret. And this is not a viable business, and we should not support them.<p>There's an obviously failing business with little to no added value: that of big record companies and rock stars. They were viable propositions when printing records was expensive (high marginal cost business). Now the cost of music distribution is effectively zero (zero marginal cost business). Why should they insist they are allowed to maintain their business model?<p>If making pizza becomes essentially free, why would we pass laws that prevent people from getting free pizzas? It's absurd.