Piracy also has obviously positive effects, and you'd be a fool to argue otherwise.
But it's worth being reminded that it's "piracy" that led to the modern forms of consuming art.
Before Napster the music industry would never move to the Spotify/Youtube model.
Before movie torrents the movie industry would never move to the Netflix model.
Ditto for books, games, what have you.
The exposure to other paradigms, other cultures, other forms of art have vastly improved the quality of life and even educated the masses (especially on less rich places of the world) on such a grand scale.
I think it would be a fools errand to try and prove that the benefits of one outweigh the other.
But it's fine, because, thankfully, we can have both.
Filmmakers fled the east coast to Los Angeles, where it was easier to evade motion-pictures patents held by Edison. This is how Hollywood was born. Piracy definitely helped create the biggest movie industry.
But it's worth being reminded that it's "piracy" that led to the modern forms of consuming art.
Before Napster the music industry would never move to the Spotify/Youtube model.
Before movie torrents the movie industry would never move to the Netflix model.
Ditto for books, games, what have you.
The exposure to other paradigms, other cultures, other forms of art have vastly improved the quality of life and even educated the masses (especially on less rich places of the world) on such a grand scale.
I think it would be a fools errand to try and prove that the benefits of one outweigh the other.
But it's fine, because, thankfully, we can have both.