Piracy as a business model

Piracy is often considered to be little more than a crime in the US, but interestingly, it's blossoming into a "legitimate" business model in other countries, like China and Brazil. In fact, some companies have found creative ways to thrive in a virtually "piracy-dominated" environment, and more importantly, discovered ways to transform it into a new, innovative medium for marketing and branding products.

Of course, piracy also exists in the US (though is not as prevalent [or accepted], due to our established legal & patent system). Nevertheless, it's still considered a looming threat for many companies that fail to embrace it. Perhaps some learnings from developing countries can be applied towards developing new trend-based marketing solutions, especially with a consumer that's finally learning to cut back -

Piracy as a Business Model