Spanish court found piracy harmless

A judge from Spain made an interesting decision in the sale of pirated copies: the defendant does not have to pay compensation to the copyright holder because it is impossible to determine the extent of the damage to sales. The judge also suggested that piracy could increase sales.

Anyone who considers piracy only harm or purely good for authors is mistaken.
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Digital piracy has a different effect in each case. Differences are manifested not only in various areas of the media industry: gaming, music, typography, cinema, but also in a different level of popularity and features of the target audience.

There are many cases in which digital piracy has had a positive effect on sales. Studies have shown that the "pirates" - the best buyers in the music industry, as confirmed this year by one of the leaders of EMI Douglas Merrill.



“For example, there is evidence that a file sharing service is useful for an artist. That is not harmful. It is likely that we should not oppose file sharing all the time. I'm not sure, ” said Merrill then.

Merill's assumptions are a rather rare case for a big shot in the music industry, but he was not the only one who spoke in a similar vein. In recent months, several people in the anime and publishing industries have come to similar conclusions.

The opinion that digital piracy affects the level of sales is not so detrimental, also did not go unnoticed among lawyers. The above-mentioned judge from Spain indicated in the ruling that it is impossible to determine the damage caused, since it is unclear how many people would agree to buy the product at the initial price.

“It is impossible to determine the damage and the corresponding compensation due to loss of profits for the copyright holder for the simple reason that downloading illegal copies of movies and music people clearly expressed their desire not to be buyers of legal copies, and therefore making profit from them is impossible. [...] In other words, these people would rather buy a cheap pirated copy than the original for 15-20 euros, ”the judge said.

According to the judge, instead of harming the holders of rights to works, piracy can help in sales. “In any case, returning to a legal dispute, a situation is quite possible in which the buyer, after listening to or viewing an illegal copy, wishes to order the original, making sure that the product meets his preferences; therefore, the sale of pirated copies instead of harm helps the market of legal publications. [...] I declare that in this case there is no harm for which compensation would be possible, ”the judge summed up the decision.

Although the same conclusions were reached as a result of several studies , this is the first case where a justice representative spoke in a similar way.

In an era when human rights are violated in order to protect the interests of several media companies with a turnover of millions of dollars, a more realistic, balanced and independent view of the real consequences of digital piracy is needed.

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