Piracy is something the world could do without. It’s stealing—that’s plain and simple, black and white. And yet, it’s something that so few find morally and ethically unacceptable. Maybe this is due to the fact that most pirated items are not physically tangible. Movies are seen. Music is heard. But, books are held. Paintings and other artwork are most commonly created so that their final products are physically observed, not digitally. Therefore, movies and music are more commonly pirated because the perpetrators of the crime are under the impression that their felony cannot actually be seen. “[But] by stealing the creative product of talented people, this form of piracy deprives artists of the rewards they deserve. If left unchecked, such crime would drain the incentive to create that enriches our lives” (Paul McNulty). So, on the contrary, these crimes can be seen. For example, in the music industry, it costs approximately $1 million to fully promote and produce a single (assuming the artist is signed to a major label, this includes the production of a music video and radio promotion). This $1 million is essentially loaned to the artist, and through their record/single sales, ticket sales, and merchandise sales it becomes to artist’s responsibility to pay back the label or risk being “dropped” or having paying the money out of pocket. When it is considered that the bulk of artists are young, is this potential amount of debt not a shocking burden to bear so early on in a career? Therefore, every little bit of sales helps, even if it is just $0.99 for a song. To deprive an artist of royalties through piracy is stealing. Money is money, and most of the time money, itself, can even be as abstract as the creative content pirated.
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