Tim O'Reilly on piracy

[miriam_e]

Piracy is Progressive Taxation, and Other Thoughts on the Evolution of Online Distribution

As a publisher he has a number of important messages. He points out that obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy and that current distribution systems for books, music, and movies are skewed heavily in favor of the "haves" against the "have nots." He notices that customers want to do the right thing, if they can.

It is a long and very insightful article on how money can be made in the vacuum left by the big corporations in their paranoid terror of the internet.

Comments

[gothxxangel.livejournal.com]

I agree with that. Particularly in the US, I've noticed, the unavailability of legally liscenced foreign movies and music practically forces people (read: anime nerds and manga junkies) to use, shall we say, less than legal methods to get them.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Yes. Excellent point.

That is one of the weirdest things about the control freaks running the movie industry. In dividing the world up into regions they made it almost impossible for a lot of people to legitimately buy movies. It is a very strange thing to do. Amazingly they then complain when people circumvent their stupid controls.

[sharpblonde.livejournal.com]

Good article. Gives me stuff to think about for the store I want to open... Perhaps at the least I should sell a guide on what online publishers are out there and what genres they deal in with some commentary on how good the sites are from users... Something like that shouldn't be too hard to do. And it is true, I want to support artists so I go out and buy the stuff I like when I have money and the product is available here.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Amazon is a great example of how to do things well. They make it possible for people to add comments and reviews and recommendations. People jump at the chance. Most people like to help each other.

I tend to only buy CDs from small, independant labels. I balk at buying from the big ones that are involved in sueing people. I'm not shy about sharing music. The interesting thing is that it has shaped my buying patterns. Most of the artists I found out about through downloading (they never got radio airtime or prominently featured in record shops) are now my favorite musicians and those are the CDs I seek out and buy.