The Piracy Tragedy
On the one hand we have a significant part of the Internet-connected populous downloading films, music, books and games without paying for them. Then on the other hand we’ve got the publishers, obviously not liking what’s going on, but taking out their anger on the also not inconsiderable part of the Internet-connected populous, that actually does pay for those products. Welcome to the world of piracy.
The entertainment industry had its chance to nip the problem in the bud several years ago, and threw it away. Had the industry moved along with the times, and launched digital distribution services when people started asking for them, odds are we’d never have seen the rise of a generation that downloads without any moral reservations.
The existence of the “everything is free, piracy is okay” morale amongst the general population, makes the continuous attempts of the industry to stop piracy by lobbying for new legislature look ridiculous. Laws are meaningless when they aren’t supported by the population, and governments know this. Laws are also meaningless when they are without a way to enforce them, and detecting copyright infringement simply isn’t as straightforward as detecting speeding, theft or murder: There is no fast car, no missing property and no blood; only bits that might or might not belong to an illegal download.
A pirate ship. Back in the days when the Internet did not yet exist, films, music and games had to be transported from one continent to the other over sea (rather than under it), and by wooden boats (rather than glass fibre). Pirating involved entering those boats and killing its crews. The popularity of modern piracy is largely attributed to the fact that it involves less killing than used to be the case.
Back in the present, the industry’s approach to the problem has improved a bit, but not much. A lot of content, mostly music and games, is now available through download channels, but there is a forest of regional restrictions that shields content from entire continents filled with potential customers. Meanwhile piracy is still hugely popular, not only because it’s cheapest, but also because it’s simply the best service out there: You can get anything you want, whenever you want, in the format you want, wherever you are and without being tied to any software or hardware. It is ironic that this amount of customer service is only available through illegal channels.
So it’s two factors that make piracy popular; the price and the service. The industry tends to talk only about the first factor; goes on to conclude there is no way it can compete on price and then basically throws the towel into the ring. That’s entirely their loss, because in competing on the second factor lays not only the one way in which piracy rates can be brought down, but also the possibility of great market expansion.
Several reports show that the average media consumption is growing rapidly. Piracy has a large hand in this, but not only because it makes entertainment cheaper. Being able to watch a new episode of your favourite show whenever you want, being able to buy an album the minute you get the urge to listen to a particular artist, being able to watch a particular movie on an evening you feel like it; these are all scenario’s where people can consume more content, can pay for more content, but only if they can get to that content in a quick and hassle free way. Currently, it’s only piracy that offers that amount of service.