Discovering the motives behind piracy can lead to innovation

In this post by Cory Doctorow at BoingBoing Buying DVDs vs pirating them we see how the process of watching a movie varies radically depending of how the movie was acquired:

Sometimes piracy as a business model delivers value beyond getting the goods for free, it delivers convenience. And that is a point that many times escapes content publshers who associate their rights over content with the rights of how that content is consumed and impose on consumers restrictions that consumers find unacceptable.

Sometimes we get so caught up in judging the morality of illegitimate industries that we forget to learn some of their highly innovative methods.