I’ve been thinking about this over the last few months and although I don’t envy the rights holders themselves – they have to protect their work, after all it’s their livelihood. But I think they do have to wake up and smell the proverbial coffee.
I mean lets look at it. Digital piracy is rife. I absolutely will not condone it ever, but it happens all the time and everywhere. Lets ask ourselves why?
The primary reason, arguably, is that the technology is moving faster than the rights lawyers want it to. They want to retain control for their clients – rightly, but they are failing to respond to the new world of entertainment timely enough. People want content and by restricting access, I argue, they actively encourage illegal distribution. People are inherently lazy they will almost always follow the path of least resistance. Therefore it follows that if one makes it difficult or impossible to obtain something legally then they will, most of the time, if they want it enough, try to find a way of obtaining it illegally – its human nature.
Answer? make it easy to get the content in a legal way and make it affordable.
Apple has gone some way to do this with iTunes but its still not enough – they use restrictive DRM which makes it impossible to use paid for content on anything other than an iPOD, why? also if you dont back up your library (and lets face it who does these days) you could lose your licensed downloads if your machine crashes and its a real pain to get them back. Microsoft’s is better at least its not as restrictive! Which is great for them. BUtwhat about the smaller, more agile operators who have innovative approaches to delivery? those who don’t have Millions of dollars to lay out in advance fees and Minimum Revenue Guarantees? they can’t play. It’s not a level playing field and the operators with the big money will always squeeze out the smaller ones. If small operators don’t have access to the content then they can’t sign up subscribers – they go under simple.
Surely it’s in the best interests of the Digital Rights holders to have their work legally exposed to as many potential buyers as possible? isn’t it? Surely you want to sell your work and promote it to as large an audience as possible?
I suppose that by making it expensive for operators to supply the representatives of said rights holders are again, maybe unwittingly, promoting illegal distribution – not by small operators I hasten to add, but by the population in general.
IP is changing everything in entertainment. Maybe the content rights holders need to re-examine their go to market strategies. Embrace IP distribution. Make it easy for users and cost effective for operators to buy and provide. Then we can all reap the benefits – but not lose control.
