Portugal's Minister: downloading is culture's ally

GreatBunzinni writes: Portugal's minister of science and higher education, Mariano Gago, while participating in The Internet Governance Forum,stated that unauthorized access to copyrighted works should be saw by the cultural industry as an ally instead of an enemy, claiming that it is a source of progress. Mariano Gago also commented that unauthorized access to copyrighted works has the desired ability to increase the product's value thanks to the increased exposure, citing pop music as an example and claiming that "Nowadays, thanks to the internet a band can attain unthinkable popularity levels that could then be capitalized through concerts and also increased sales of their works". He also criticized piracy's negative effects, stating that it "takes away from producers and artists the power to pursuit their capacity to create" and that "piracy illegally transfers to distributing companies the earnings owed to artists and producers".