http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkai...tudy-finds-internet-downloads-increase-sales/
http://www.osnews.com/story/24376/Piracy_Increases_Anime_DVD_Sales_Study_Concludes
http://www.digitaltrends.com/music/bittorrent-piracy-increases-sales-of-leaked-albums-study/
Yeah, no proof at all.
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Erm, nope. Legally, piracy is not theft. By definition of theft, you take without consent. If you download something illegally, then you haven't removed anything, you have duplicated (no matter what the various industry bodies would like you to believe).
It's copyright infringement at best.
And for the record I'm a software developer (granted I haven't been around 25 years) - I've written a small piece of software which handles load balancing of web servers - sells for £199, and has been doing quite well.
There's a pirated version of my software floating around - have I tried to get it removed? No way. There's a small piece of code which displays a banner in pirated copies (only in the admin panel) asking them to buy a license, and I quote "or at least make a charitable donation, send me an email with proof, and I'll send them a key to remove the banner". One small company made a £500 donation to Cancer Research UK, and I've had over £10k in sales through this banner, all originating through pirated copies. I doubt these people would have bought the software if they hadn't pirated it first.
Digging further into sales, registered users get 3 support tickets included, but you can buy more at £50-£150 (multi packs or diagnostics) a pop (a strategy clearly targeted to "unregistered" users - since I never limit registered customers to the 3). Support tickets from unregistered users who haven't purchased the software make up, on average, 10% of revenue. That is - for every 2 and a half registered users, there's a pirate who needs help. Now, I could get on my high horse and say "Look, you didn't pay for the software, bugger off", or I could sell them a support ticket for £50. Since there's no material cost-per-copy to me, I'll take the £50 from the pirate, thanks.