The Minister of Science and Technology of Portugal, Mr. Mariano Gago, stated that Internet "piracy" on a wide scale brings some positive developments, such as an enormous increased value to producers who see their content distributed all over the world. Mr. Gago added that this is not surprising, since piracy has always been a source of progress and globalization.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJS3N9ThTm8
Pressure from the content industry lobby forced Mr. Gago to publicly retract his statement.
Actually, historic and contemporary facts strongly support his claims. An important account is given by professor Doron Ben-Altar in his book "Trade Secrets: Intellectual Piracy and the Origins of American Industrial Power":
"During the first decades of America's existence as a nation, private citizens, voluntary associations, and government officials encouraged the smuggling of European inventions and artisans to the New World. These actions openly violated the intellectual property regimes of European nations. [...] What fueled 19th century American boom was a dual system of principled commitment to an intellectual property regime combined with absence of commitment to enforce these laws. This ambiguous order generated innovation by promising patent monopolies. At the same time, by declining to crack down on technology pirates, it allowed for rapid dissemination of innovation that made American products better and cheaper."
Moreover, thanks to the small costs of European books for which copyright was not paid, the USA managed to fight illiteracy of the population at a faster rate than Europe.