The point is; no one would being paying anything unless it got so popular. And, it was allowd to get so popular because no one pettily went after "small fry" infringers. They let (encouraged probably) it go "viral". Let it be mixed, shared, performed, Let it become part of our culture, almost in The Commons.
And when it was good enough to be shared, massively, they reaped the just rewards.
Right, it's stupid to go after the small fry, but nor is this evidence that copyright in general should be abolished, as some think. The balance is somewhere in the middle.
And when it was good enough to be shared, massively, they reaped the just rewards.