“Seriously, We Were Gonna Buy That Music After We Stole It!”
In the aftermath of their convictions for copyright infringement, the “masterminds” behind Pirate Bay in Sweden want to draw the public’s attention to recent research indicating that those who engage in illegal P2P file sharing often go on to purchase the music legally.
Anyone detect an odor? I’d say it’s getting pretty ripe. People may sample a particular artist’s work before committing to purchasing large volumes, but once they’ve got a track, they’re not going to buy that particular track (obviously).
More importantly, whatever people may do after illegally downloading files does not bear on whether Pirate Bay is vicariously liable for copyright infringement by virtue of their business model. As others have pointed out, search engines direct users to all relevant content, legal or illegal, but Pirate Bay funneled them directly to the “juicy” stuff - copyrighted files available for download.
To look on the bright side, the Pirate Bay defendants will have a year in close proximity to people who are intimately familiar with the criminal mindset, so follow-up research should prove convenient.
I dunno, I can sort of buy the theory. I personally have illegally downloaded music, liked it, and then went out and bought the CD. Of course, that was before I had an iPod. Now that you can buy music a-la-carte like that, I bet I wouldn’t do so if I still illegally downloaded content.
That all said, just because the argument has a shred of plausibility to it, that doesn’t mean it isn’t a load of crap. The PB is full of crap, plain and simple. Maybe the record companies are evil and should be brought down. Copyright law is a load of crap with its “life plus 70 thanks to Disney” duration, and maybe companies abuse it all the time to squelch fair use. That’s all true, and I’d love to see most of the major media companies on fire, burned to the ground, with everything they have destroyed… but that doesn’t mean that it makes it okay for me to commit arson.