A big concern of artists, especially those whose work is not in a traditional, physical media such as performing or visual arts, is theft. Most art is now consumed and distrubuted digitally, and we’re talking mainly about music here, but more recently movies have become fully involved in the digital media consumption wildfire that has led to proposed legislation to control the legality of that consumption. SOPA (or, the Stop Online Piracy Act) seeks to impose the most stringent penalties to date on those who facilitate the transfer of copyrighted digital media illegally, and to persecute those who download the media without buying it from an official source.
To find out how much all of this illegal downloading is really costing artists who, after all, are only trying to earn a living, let’s look at this infographic created by the MPAA (or Motion Picture Association of America — the same group that issues movie ratings.) Bear in mind that MPAA has a clear bias in presenting the figures you’re about to examine, so keep and open mind, and let us know what you think.
