| Friday, May 9th, 2008 (362 Views)  |  |
| http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post...e-pirates.html
Quote:
Matt Mason, in his book The Pirate's Dilemma (look for our review next week), shows how a culture of piracy tends to grow up whenever and wherever a human need meets draconian restrictions—economic, legal, what have you. The establishment that gave birth to hip-hop, Wikipedia, disco, and YouTube must change in the end or risk losing out as new players monetize the new market staked out by the pirates. Rap and graffiti started out as rebel yells, then became accepted as art forms, and they have now been integrated into the multibillion-dollar pop culture machinery that once was the enemy. It happened to Dr. Dre because the record companies couldn't silence him and his fans with cookie-cutter pop, so hip-hop quickly became a business model instead.
What Sumner is missing with his comments is the fact that pirates can be beaten—it happens all the time—but not primarily by means of legal threats and lawsuits. No, you subjugate these rebels with the tools of free enterprise. Piracy is just another business model, and the pirates will lose and go away when you come up with a better model (or they will become legitimate players themselves).
Stripped down to the bare essentials, consumers will choose the service with the most attractive balance of price, convenience, and quality. Piracy will always win on price, because you can't really beat free. The other two components are up for grabs, but the media companies are only now starting to seize the opportunity.
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