While the world continues to struggle with how to update copyright laws, this article from Tim O’Reilly in 2002 provides an interesting angle with which to view the situation:
“Piracy is progressive taxation”
For all of these creative artists, most laboring in obscurity, being well-enough known to be pirated would be a crowning achievement. Piracy is a kind of progressive taxation, which may shave a few percentage points off the sales of well-known artists (and I say “may” because even that point is not proven), in exchange for massive benefits to the far greater number for whom exposure may lead to increased revenues.”