What Will We Learn From Music Piracy?
Source: Wired 03.08 “Let My Video Go”
DVDs, Blue-ray, Tivo, DVR… all indicate our desire to have video on demand. Video files are available to download, but it is in the same stage music files were in several years ago. Music executives were so concerned with piracy that they didn’t offer any convenient download options in the beginning. Hollywood execs should have a feeling like deja-vu, since piraters are the only ones offering convenient video downloads for the time being.
Wired makes the point that the music industry has lost enormous revenue over the years by focusing on prosecuting piraters, rather than focusing on competition. There is strong speculation that many users have downloaded pirated music only because there was no legal alternative – same boat for video files today. Sure there are options, but they are mainly “rentals”, bulky encoded files, and limited availability of titles.
“The lessons from the music fiasco are clear: Trying to limit the inherent advantages of digital files is a losing strategy.” Entertainment executives need to understand that they will never have a chance against piracy if they are not offering customers a solution. “The way to stop piracy is to make everything available – easily, legally, and at a fair price.”
