this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2023
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ
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When it comes to art, there’s always somebody who doesn’t make it financially. Too few sold albums, too few downloads, too little merch sold. Some artists are always going to struggle and barely stay afloat making art, while the ones doing marinally worse are gonna quit and do something else.
The number of these people for whom piracy - or any other small loss of revenue for that matter - tips the scale doesn’t depend on how many people pirate stuff.
The actual difference piracy makes is the 0.2% (or whatever) dent in revenue which then means ~ 0.2% of potential artists end up working in other industries.
When deciding whether or not use someone's art without their permission, it behooves one to consider the ethics. Whether you come to a different conclusion than I do is whatever, but not every case is exactly the same, and to dismiss the people on the other side of the equation with made-up numbers pulled from thin air is not the proper way to go about it.
The argument doesn't really hinge on the made-up numbers, it would be the same if you swapped 10% in there.