Speaking at the Midem conference in Cannes yesterday, Rovio big cheese, Mikael Hed, told an audience member that he believes that piracy is not always a bad thing. According to Hed, the industry needs to change the way it looks at consumers.

“We could learn a lot from the music industry, and the rather terrible ways the music industry has tried to combat piracy,” he explained.

“We took something from the music industry, which was to stop treating the customers as users, and start treating them as fans. We do that today: we talk about how many fans we have.

“If we lose that fanbase, our business is done, but if we can grow that fanbase, our business will grow.”

Of course, it’s easy to say that when your company developed a game for next to nothing and then it went on to become the top selling iOS app.

Hed also pointed out that trying to take legal action against users for pirating a game is “futile”, and that it only serves to alienate thousands of potential fans who would otherwise help build the brand.

“Piracy may not be a bad thing: it can get us more business at the end of the day,” he said.

Source: The Guardian

Pictured: Typical industry reaction to piracy