A Canadian media conference has been told that piracy is a good thing as illegal downloading secures indie producers more business and markets for their product.

“We’re really coming to a place right now where piracy and file sharing is actually doing what it’s supposed to do: It’s showing new markets, it’s taking the content business to new places and it’s helping build big businesses for new and emerging companies but also for some of our big leading content providers,” Gavin McGarry, president of Jumpwire Media, told a panel at Prime Time, the annual gathering of Canadian indie producers

Digital media consultant Robert Tercek told the panel entitled “The Ins and Outs of Illegal Downloading” that content producers could avoid piracy by reasonably pricing their product for consumers. “If they make their content available, this part of the issue will go away,” he argued.

Robert Levine, a former executive editor of Billboard and author of ‘Free Ride’, agreed that providing access to product, rather than throwing up barriers, was key to getting paid. “I’m not creating blocks between my content and you, I’m putting in a toll booth between my content and you,” he told the panel.

Categories: Articles, Content, Piracy