June 3, 2010

  • Is piracy filling a need in the market?

    Could it be that piracy is so rampant not because people enjoy things for free but because it offers it in a format that people can use and enjoy? I ask this question because piracy is rampant nearly a decade later despite the best efforts of the entertainment industry.   The RIAA has been suing individuals for 7 years and even though they claim they have stopped they really have not.  The MPAA is no better with producers sending out blanket statements through groups like the U.S. Copyright Group that accuse you of infringing even if you haven’t.  They then try to convince you to pay them a settlement fee to avoid going to court.   It’s open for debate if they would actually take you to court as it appears to be more of an extortion scheme.  I digress however.

    With all the forms of media available through bit torrent networks even after the “win” over the Pirate Bay you have to begin to question if people are trying to say something here.  DRM does not help the user experience but instead punishes the legitimate customers, and does nothing to slow down or stop piracy.  Games that require a live internet connection and CD to be played are often more annoying than they are worth which leads individuals to find a copy on the internet that works how they want it to instead of how the game creators wanted it to.  Movies are no different.   Here is a popular image being shared around the internet about the difference between a pirated movie and a DVD.   It shows how Hollywood has made the home movie experience a frustrating one.  Their attempt at controlling how you view media is backfiring as people want the freedom to view it on their TV, Laptop, iPod or any other mobile device.

    David Gerald did a great write-up of this over at wired.com about this very issue which really does hit on the issue of piracy at its core.  More than anything it’s the convenience of being free to use media however you want to.  The sooner the Entertainment Industry learns this the sooner it can innovate to capitalize on this.  You can’t restrict people in what they do with the content they purchase.  The days of selling the same thing on different formats is over and they need to embrace this if they hope to remain competitive and relevant.

    Why do you think that people pirate content?