Piracy - good or bad?

This is a really hard topic for me to write about! I’ll be honest, I may have downloaded a few illegal songs and or a movie or two in my day.  I feel what I downloaded was completely harmless because it was only a few songs and I didn’t turn around and share it with hundreds of other people. Who doesn’t like to get something for free every now and then? 

With that being said, I am taking the position that piracy is heinous. Artists such as musicians, film makers and authors make money off of selling their songs, movies and books. If everyone were to download illegal copies, how would they make their money? By buying songs, movies, and books, we are essentially paying artists to do their jobs and for their creative property. If I was a musician and my song was getting downloaded illegally and I wasn’t making any money on it, I would be mad! I don’t work for free, and I guess we shouldn’t expect artists to either.

One credible analysis by the Institute for Policy Innovation concludes that global music piracy causes $12.5 billion of economic losses every year, 71,060 U.S. jobs lost, a loss of $2.7 billion in workers' earnings, and a loss of $422 million in tax revenues, $291 million in personal income tax and $131 million in lost corporate income and production taxes.

When you look at how much money global music piracy costs, it can definitely be viewed as heinous.