First. Pirates, most of the time, take away from the potential revenue of a copyright owner. You can argue that you wouldn't have used that product otherwise anyway, but thats not always true.
Second. The reason the music industry is booming with the likes of iTunes is the convenient access to it. In the past, it was more convenient to pirate, now its more convenient to buy than it is to pirate.
In the past, it was more convenient to pirate, now its more convenient to buy than it is to pirate.
I'll agree with you there, but I don't think legal music downloads could have succeeded if they hadn't been illegal first, in the same way that freemium services become so popular based on the free option, only later to make money with the paid plan. Take my generation, who went to college from 1998-2002...we got so used to downloading illegally (the scour.net guys were in the next building over from me), that we still download today, just on iTunes since we have money now.
Second. The reason the music industry is booming with the likes of iTunes is the convenient access to it. In the past, it was more convenient to pirate, now its more convenient to buy than it is to pirate.