Digital Piracy Is Okay

An Inversion of Digital Piracy Is Evil, where downloading something not only doesn't mean you're a reprobate, but is actually encouraged by the artist. Compare Digital Distribution, for when they want you to download it but still expect you to pay for it.

See also Keep Circulating the Tapes.

(Only add examples where the creator of a work has endorsed piracy of their own product. This is not a forum for discussion about piracy.)

Encouraged
"Bruce Dickinson: If you're watching this and you're bootlegging it, make sure that you send it to all of your friends, not just the Swedish ones."
 * Trent Reznor has encouraged fans to download his music, since he hates the ridiculous price tag the record companies tack onto his music.
 * After unfinished material leaked, System of a Down said they didn't care if people downloaded their music, but requested people wait until they were finished with it.
 * The creators of the film The Man From Earth encouraged people to download the movie using bittorrent.
 * Neil Gaiman
 * Also Brazilian best-seller writer Paulo Coelho,who even was promoted by Pirate Bay.
 * The German metal group Eisbrecher included blank CDs in with the first 5000 copies of their self-titled album, basically saying to fans "Copy this".
 * Best Brains Inc., the guys who brought you Mystery Science Theater 3000, encouraged viewers to Keep Circulating the Tapes back in the before times when digital piracy was in its infancy. Even now they're still easy about it and want people to be able to get a hold of MST3K episodes which weren't released on DVD by allowing the Digital Archive Project to distribute most episodes and uploading a few themselves to Google Video.
 * Nerdcore hip hop artist MC Lars has a song entitled 'Download This Song' that is, more or less, a complaint against the monopoly of sorts of the record labels and urges the listener to download music as a means of breaking said monopoly.
 * English hip-hop artist Dan Bull is loved on the internet for his song Dear Lily, a Take That at Lily Allen for opposing piracy. The entire song supports filesharing and attacks record labels.
 * Encouraged by Iron Maiden when they performed in Gothenburg in 2005, a concert which aired live in the Scandinavian countries.


 * Encouraged by Dead Kennedys with the cassette edition of their EP In God We Trust, Inc. Its B-side had a label stating, "Home taping is killing record industry profits! We left this side blank so you can help."
 * Eyeshine puts a fake FBI disclosure on their CDs, of note the one from Red Stripes White Lights: "FBI Warning: Illegal distribution is a criminal offense punishable by DEATH. Just kidding, make sure all your friends get a copy."
 * The person behind Mother 3 encourages the Fan Translation of the game, since it'll never get an international release.

Neutral
"Odds are that you probably
 * Microsoft is famous for saying, "If You're Going To Pirate Software, Pirate Ours"
 * Notch has has said that he is with some people pirating Minecraft, also he shows a lot of support for mods, and IRL he is a member of the Pirate Party
 * An issue of She Hulk featured a cyborg shoplifting. The New Warriors showed up to catch her but couldn't believe she had broke in just to steal music albums, telling her instead to download them.
 * There is an "FBI Warning" at the beginning of almost every commercial VHS tape warning about the penalties for copyright infringement. One video tape released by the Insane Clown Posse instead began with an "ICP Warning" that basically said that since they stole the contents themselves, they don't care if you copy the video and can't do anything about it if you did.
 * When ICP released The Wraith: Shangri-La, they placed a disclaimer on their website saying they didn't care if you downloaded it, they just asked that downloaders listen to the songs in the listed order.
 * The members of the Swedish metal band Machinae Supremacy are very open on their negative opinion of the RIAA's attempts to shut down music torrenting. Not only does the song "Legion of Stoopid" call them "the Recording Industry Assholes of America," it also suggests that they promote "mass ignorance" for the sake of making money. Not to mention that they've stated, in concert, in interviews and on their website that they don't care if you download their albums as long as you remember to seed what you take.
 * Christian rock band Relient K inverted this in the song Scene and Herd:

magically got this song for free (heh)

I'm not sure if it bothers me -

it seems fine!"


 * Quite early in the main rulebook for Cthulhu Tech, it gives you a short "If You Downloaded This Book" lecture, saying, in short, "If you like it, buy it, otherwise we'll likely go out of business". Several sourcebooks later, this seems to have worked.
 * Maid RPG has a message that says that if you download the book, don't just keep it gathering dust in your harddisk, play it with friends.
 * After awhile, Bethesda pretty much ignored piracy of Arena and Daggerfall. Eventually, they made them full-fledged Freeware to Keep Circulating the Tapes.
 * Joked about by Jonathan Colton via Twitter: "Hey, have any other artists noticed that since Mega Upload shut down the money has just been POURING in?"
 * Jim Sterling has zig-zagged this. He has endorsed piracy for some works...but will lapse into the Digital Piracy Is Evil when DRM-free games like World of Goo report 90% piracy rates or when a good number of people still pirate the Humble Bundle despite its low price.
 * Disturbed has stated from time to time that, as much as Warner Music Group likes to make a fuss about it, the members of the band themselves don't care much about people downloading their songs