Read an interesting article which pertains to the Week 5 discussions on intellectual property where a US appeals court ruled that Google's book scanning iniitiative does not violate any laws. Google actually stated that making the scanned books available in an online library would boost book sales as it would introduce readers to authors and works they were previously not exposed to.

This is exactly the same argument that proponents of torrent sites that specifically cater to music have made. It is rationalized that pirated music distributed over P2P networks expand the musicians to a wider audience. In fact, major artists such as Prince and Nine Inch Nails have pounced upon the value of exposing their music for free by distributing full albums (front of a newspaper for Prince and online for NIN). Just fascinating that this concept is touching upon written material and that Google used that argument!

References:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/16/us-google-books-idUSKCN0SA1S020151016?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter

http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/4/4054634/musics-pay-what-you-want-pioneers-sour-on-giving-away-songs