Is Fraud Good For the Economy?

[dontworrybehappy]

[eric]

[Indy]

[Dylan]

Fraud leads to inefficient allocation of resources. It's harmful. Full stop.

[Davethulhu]

[dontworrybehappy]

[exploited]

I don't think that dontworrybehappy has made any serious mistakes on this thread. That being said, I disagree that the music industry has been killed.

The dollar per song model is a very sustainable one, and many artists and recording companies are making a great deal of money off it.

I did a quick Google search, and what I found seems to support my view. Worldwide music industry revenue has gone up every year since 2006. Live concert revenue has gone up every year since 2006. North American music publishing revenues have gone up every year since 2006.

So, dontworrybehappy, if you are arguing that digital music sales have killed the old business model of the music industry, I'd agree with you. But digital media sales are going to be very, very profitable in the future, especially given the fact that these companies are likely going to get ever-more-powerful patent rights issued to them by activist courts. Consumers won't "own" these songs, and so access to them will be severely curtailed at the slightest hint of "illegal" behaviour.

[Stratego]

[The Comrade]

[dontworrybehappy]

So you still can't prove that piracy has cost the music industry money. Funny, because they can't prove it either. As my source explained, you can't prove it because you can't prove that someone who downloaded the song illegally would have bought it in the first place. So......if someone has a song you wrote downloaded free, but wouldn't have paid for it anyway, what are your damages?

Digital music and software are unlike any other tangible product in the world, they can be digitally recreated unlimited number of times. I can't take your lawnmower and use it, and then say "I wouldn't have paid for it anyway." Because when I have your lawnmower, you don't have it. I can't take your lawnmower, make unlimited copies for free, and distribute them to my neighbors. But I can take your song, copy it, distribute it to 1000 people who wouldn't have bought it anyway and you can't prove you're out a dime because of those illegal copies since those people wouldn't have given you a dime anyway. They wouldn't have your music, but more importantly, you wouldn't have their money.

Therein lies the problem.