I’ll explain this as shortly as I can. The entertainment media are on the wrong road to dealing with digital piracy. Internet bandwidths will creep up over the next few years and make it feasible to transmit larger and larger files between more and more computers. People will keep finding ways around the security, and the way information travels over the internet, there is no practical way to stop this.
This is not the same as shoplifting. Morally, sure, it’s exactly the same. Practically, it’s hugely different. If digital piracy were compared to shoplifting, it would be shoplifting in a super department store with no walls, no cameras, and one guy trying to be cashier, floorwalker, and security guard all at once. They can catch some people but not everyone, and the more obsessed they become with catching thieves, the more inconvenient it makes things for honest people.
The fact of the matter is that the business model of the 20th century is becoming obsolete. It is simply insane to think you can control the distribution of anything that exists in a form that can be transmitted over the Internet. Something more akin to a patronage model would be more effective.
If that has to be explained, it involves giving up on trying to make your money off of the distribution of your product. Instead, you focus on getting your money before the product is released, effectively holding it hostage until a certain total in donations has been achieved. Once donations reach a certain threshold, you release the product, distributing it for free online, or for nominal fees on hard media. That threshold should be however much you need to cover the costs of developing the Product. In order to encourage people to send you money, offer as much in advance as you have to in order to whet their appetites.
This model may seem strange and of questionable effectiveness, but I have to ask, is trying to control distribution really the most lucrative way to go in the information era?
