Oh, I know plenty of people who say it's awesome to consume stuff without paying too. Of course, 90% of them wouldn't buy that stuff anyway since they're already struggling to feed and clothe their kids (Yeay for living in a country in a permanent economic crisis for the last 30 years!).

But the few I know that can actualy afford that stuff aren't spending less; at most, they moved to spending more on concerts and less on albums. Which is supported by real data in other countries:

http://www.hypebot.com/.a/6a00d83451b36c69e2012875f077e8970c...

So, sorry if your anedoctal "evidence" doesn't convince me.

You can deliberately choose it to not convince you and in doing that, that won't make it magically disappear.

My convictions are based on:

- multiple studies showing that "pirates" buy a lot

- data showing that artists are making, in total, more money than before

- data presented by the media companies themselves showing consecutive years of record profits

Yours are based on a study done on just 30 movies during only three years.

And yet apparently, I'm the one trying to delude myself.

why are you so certain they would pay if they couldn't pirate

Because they did before they could pirate (Before they figured out Limewire and now torrents) and other reasons such as wanting to fit in.

It's really not all that complex. Piracy also isn't divorced from other things people do.