Piracy. Is it such a bad thing?

We often come across such statements as “Save Music. Kill Piracy”, "It's More than a Copy; It's a Crime". “Get the Real Picture: Don’t Buy Illegal DVDs Off The Street.”

We all know that piracy kills revenues for the companies, it’s illegal and immoral. Well but is it really such a bad thing? After all every coin has two sides.

Software giant Microsoft rules the market share, all because 10 years back market was flooded with pirated copies of Windows and office. People are so addicted to it that now they are buying original copies with their laptops, desktops etc.

If the piracy killed the cinema, why is Hollywood booming as ever? Let alone the booming of Hollywood alone, let’s think from a global perspective.

Piracy is bringing the world closer than ever. And expanding the market share for industries not so famous earlier. Its creating cultural awareness and sensitization, Interest in multiple languages and cultures, overseas job opportunities and coaxing the mind to know and be curious about things we never thought of.

Movie clips, songs, music videos are available freely on net. (And I’m not saying only English , French , Spanish ,Italian , Arabic , Hindi , Chinese , Korean ) . And how does this help in all that I mentioned above?

Sitting in a remote town of India, a person may not have access to Korean or Italian Cinema, Chinese animation. The local video library holds a meager collection of Bollywood and Hollywood. Suddenly net has opened people’s eyes to world cinema .They know the names of Korean soap stars and Italian actors.

Some of the movies they would like so much, they would definitely want to buy a DVD if it was available in market. The net has created a need to buy a DVD of a foreign film. In turn creating a market for world cinema in India.

You can see comments in Spanish posted for Indian movie songs, asking for translation, subtitles etc .Trying to understand the Indian music, lyrics, stories, and cinema. Bringing the world closer.

People listen to Arabic music and read books by French authors.

Are those things available in market? Can even spending money buy it? Why do people need to be cooped up if the world is lacking in pace to keep up with the demands of today’s entertainment.

And there are hundreds of thousands of people like this who are flooded by an awareness which wasn’t to be found before.

People can see song clippings of the movies of 40s and 50s . Makes them wonder who the actors were , makes them read their info on IMDB . makes them goto the video library and rent a DVD , makes them goto the music world and search for hours to get that in a CD , but many a times , a particular track cannot be found . Frustrating isn’t it ? The short clip just created a market for oldies, maybe killed the chance of remix , but did it kill music?

Bollywood songs and dance, were never as popular as they are now and given the increased amount of overseas shooting of song and dance sequences and requirement for supporting dancers, you can find on net hundreds of videos of young students trying out Bollywood numbers in hope they can find some summer Job for shooting for a Hindi film .Creation of Job opportunities, huh?

Kids watch South east Asian cartoons and are learning more about geography than ever . They are trying to understand the differences and similarities of cultures. By the time they will be grown ups, they would have had an exposure to the different cultures of the world. They would be better and more tolerant citizens of this world.

Isn’t it amazing to be able to know so much about the people in other parts , now what movies they watch , what books they read , what songs they listen to , what jokes they crack .

Piracy has brought us the gift of awareness, and is creating a worldwide market for things unknown to the other side of the world.

It has brought world culture on a single platform. The World Wide Web.