Spotting the pirates

At least two music shops were looted during the riots that swept Britain earlier this month. In north London, a warehouse containing CDs and DVDs was set on fire. This was devastating for shopkeepers and local residents. But the British media industry may note, cheerily, that its products are still seen as valuable enough to risk a prison sentence. In many countries it is hard to conceive of looters stealing music or films from a store. In a few, it is difficult to imagine that a warehouse filled with recorded music would even exist.
Since 2000, when the file-sharing service Napster first became popular, digital piracy has dogged the media industry. Over time piracy has become more diverse and sophisticated. In some countries, rather than swapping files on peer-to-peer networks, people now stash their loot in private “cyber-lockers”. As broadband speeds have increased, pirates have gone from downloading single songs to grabbing artists’ entire catalogues. Watching pirated television shows and films online has become more popular, too.
Yet piracy has not exactly swept the world. It is endemic in some countries but a niche activity in others. In some places the tide is flowing; in others it appears to be ebbing. In response, media firms are moving their resources from country to country, with potentially large consequences for the global flow of popular culture...

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@'The Economist'