Thoughts On Piracy
Reading Dread Pirate Yarr‘s articles here always makes me think about Pirates of the Carribean. I loved that movie and its sequel. I dig the great action scenes, the story twists and of course that charming Keira Knightley girl (who doesn’t?). There’s something about Pirates that the entertainment industry has romanticized. And to some extent, there is something about being a pirate of that kind appealing. Even one of my favorite literary characters, the Count of Monte Cristo, had dealings with pirates in his time.
But there’s another kind of piracy today that can be considered a real pain in the ass. And that’s piracy of software and piracy of content (a.k.a. copyright infringement).
Software companies are taking a hardline stance against piracy. But try as they may, pirates still get to find ways to work around copyright protection schemes. Microsoft, for example, has tried time and again to enforce restrictions on Windows, but each attempt has been foiled by patches that can be applied in 30 seconds and serial-numbers that are easily obtained from the Web. Music labels have been campaigning against music sharing, to the extent of suing everyone and his uncle for downloading “free” music online, and locking down their digital music such that people can only play them on a limited set of devices.
I hear Windows Vista will be so protected that the moment Microsoft detects you’re using a pirated copy, you’ll lose your OS’s functionality a bit at a time (like being automatically logged off after 60 minutes, or losing the ability to print a document, and the like).
The losers here in the end are the users.
Software makers keep prices high to compensate for losses, and this leads to users turning to bootlegged versions to save. Music sits put in too much copy restriction, and users will just find the “free” versions online so they can use it in more than one MP3 player or computer.
I think the best way to fight piracy of this kind is to look for alternative business models, like how some companies offer their products or services for free but ad-supported, or like how websites offer applications for free online, but with some ads. Therefore, even if a piece of software or content is distributed and redistributed, the author does not lose anything. In fact, the author (and the advertiser) gain with the advertising getting better mileage.
It’s not pretty, but I think it’s a good way to go.
