The Case for Piracy

Don't make any assumptions based on this blog title! Piracy is still ILLEGAL.
However, I do want to state a couple of things that I've heard about piracy and how it is actually working out.  Of course piracy is extremely harmful to the music industry.  However, there are some instances where it isn't.  If you take nine-inch-nails as the primary example, they've created a business model for singers not based on any huge record label and fancy advertising but on piracy.  Google the topic to find out more about it, I'm not wasting my breath here.
Another way to look at piracy is whether or not it is a bad thing for the industry as a whole. It was inevitable. As soon as mp3s became a standard, piracy was sure to break out.  With the internet, its a free distribution platform (well almost, you still gotta pay for internet).  Yet, the internet has also helped the music industry to make even more money through promoting the songs and even selling them on itunes or amazon.  In a way, it also made music (and movies) a lot more convenient to get, legally or illegally.
Piracy forced the industry to adapt to the web 2.0 architecture.  Maybe we would have all still been buying CDs without the piracy issue.  It forced the media to come onto the web and battle it out online and was ultimately better for the consumer.  You can now buy tracks individually without all the wasted plastic and extra charges (like tax).  In a way, it keeps the industry honest.