I think Google could help you out more than I could but all you need to understand that theft and copyright violation are two separate things. The first is criminal and the second is generally civil. The big exception is counterfeiting. Like if I downloaded DBC, burnt it to a CD, made up some packaging in Photoshop and made a couple of hundred to sell at flea-markets and the like. That is criminal in most places.

And rightly so.

> As for sales not being down, you mean in terms of records sold?

The sale of physical media is down because everyone has iPods and the like, the sales of online stuff however is in a state of constant growth. Now overall music is down compared to the 80s and the rise of the CD but that’s beacause video games are taking a much larger chomp out of disposable income from consoles to “free” to play.

> . Why the fuck do you think 3D (& its jolly surcharge) came back in full force? Because of the artists’ vision?

No, because studios hire MBAs to figure out ways to get people to pay more.

> Sure, the market is changing -”evolving”?- but how is it so? Because everything is awesome?

Because nothing in technology and art has stopped changing in the last 60 years?

It’s simple.

Show me a band, a movie, a TV show or anything else that has millions of downloads and no sales.

HBO’s Game of Thrones is the number one most downloaded TV show in history.

Yet they’re getting ready to launch the new season and shoot the next,their biggest worry is that the show is going to outpace the books and that the actors are going to get too old for their parts.

Not that they’re not making any money, clearly that isn’t a problem.

They even released blu-rays, you think they made all of those not to be sold?

Look at their budget, you really think HBO is going to make a show that they think is going to lose money due to any reason much less “piracy”?

The facts are no one knows what the actual effect of “piracy’ is but obviously whatever the effect is it’s either minimal or whatever bad it causes is covered by the good. That can be people watching it for free than buying the discs when they come out, it can be people watching one episode then subscribing, it can be someone watching it for free, never buying it but telling all their buddies about it and they do.

The only ones who scream about it costing anyone money are the scumbag trolls like Voltage who are not interested in copyright protection but rather turning their copyright into a revenue stream which is not what copyright is actually for.

That is why the judges in Canada shut them down, have you read that decision? It spells it all out.

As for sales not being down, you mean in terms of records sold? Like, are we reaching the same figures of the pre-Internet age or have the artists/ labels had to resort to higher concert prices and other “extras” (merch, publicity gigs…) to keep the same level of revenue they used to get solely via the music? Sure, they still earn money -again, as I explained a few posts away, this is still no Doomsday scenario- but bear in mind those are measures taken against the records sales drop. Ditto with movies. Why the fuck do you think 3D (& its jolly surcharge) came back in full force? Because of the artists’ vision?

And yes, Netflix’s sales may soar -I also praised their capacity for good business a few posts away incidentally- but are they the sole operator out there in delivering Home Entertainment content? Why do you think ComCast and TW agreed to their all evil merger? And what about the studios’ HE divisions? Are they still going strong, with the brutal layoffs of late and many of them increasingly regrouping under one banner, strangely at times from the competition as well (case in point: in Europe Fox HE distribs their own movies as well as Sony’s and EOne’s)? Sure, the market is changing -”evolving”?- but how is it so? Because everything is awesome?

It’s like letting moviegoers watch a movie for free and then ask for a contribution at the exit. If the movie isn’t to a few people’s liking, who says you’re gonna get the 100% of the full seating price?

Are you suggesting that the filmakers responsible for the hammy oscar-bait lib-agenda movie are also enthusiastically litigious?

Well then I suppose I should continue to despise and avoid those types and their movies.