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Torrent Giant, The Pirate Bay sold, will go legal

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Innuendo:
I suspect all they really bought is the name. I can't see how they could begin to adapt TPB's business model into a legitimate commercial enterprise.-Carol Haynes
--- End quote ---

There is no way to legitimize TPB's business model for the reasons I outlined earlier in this thread. I also fail to see how there could be much value to the name, either. The Pirate Bay doesn't exactly invoke images of someone I'd trust handing over my credit card info and hope they'd give me good value for my money.

There's value in the domain name, but they are only going to have one shot at grabbing the attention of people who are used to getting something for nothing and convince them to pay for what they are used to getting for free.

J-Mac:
... but they are only going to have one shot at grabbing the attention of people who are used to getting something for nothing and convince them to pay for what they are used to getting for free.
-Innuendo (July 03, 2009, 01:51 PM)
--- End quote ---

I think I'll go way out on a limb and speculate that will be a very, very tiny percentage of TPB users.   8) :D

Jim

Innuendo:
I think I'll go way out on a limb and speculate that will be a very, very tiny percentage of TPB users.   8) :D-J-Mac
--- End quote ---

Look at how many years it's been since Napster has went legit. Have they even begun to start turning any large amount of profit? And did keeping the Napster name help in what success they are finally beginning to enjoy?

This is going to be painful to watch.

40hz:
In the end, any sanctioned 3rd party music distribution service is going to exist at the whim of the media corporations who own the copyrights. Look at what's happening in the online video services.

I firmly believe that once music downloads completely replace music media purchases, you'll see all the big companies (like Sony) start to circle their wagons. Most will ultimately handle their own distribution directly from their own servers.

I'm also guessing that the only 3rd party vendors that will remain standing will be companies like Apple, who have wedded distribution to a proprietary hardware platform. And once music distribution gets locked into a handful of proprietary devices, DRM will be here to stay. Amazon already requires digital protection on anything going on their Kindle platform. And that's regardless of what the authors may want to do. If you don't want to put DRM on your book, then you're not going be allowed to distribute it through Amazon. And that rule applies even if you're giving your book away for free.

The only reason DRM isn't in complete control is because things like CDs and DVDs still exist. And it will only be a matter of time before they're no longer manufactured. The media companies would love that for a number of reasons beyond the obvious manufacturing, transportation, and inventory cost savings. Physical media is the only area where they don't have complete control of their product.

Once music and video stop being put on 'hard media,' it's pretty much all over for the end users. Because once physical media is eliminated, it will be possible to identify the buyer and apply a serial number to every copy of legally obtained media . All music will be fully identified, serialized, and encrypted at the time of release; thereby making anything that doesn't respect those safeguards illegal by default.

And once that happens, all it takes is a small bit of legislation to make the use of anything that ignores DRM (like all those nifty FOSS apps) also an illegal act. Which might seem like no big deal from an enforcement perspective, unless that same law also allowed for watchdog agencies to have a look-see at your PC via the web. Such a law could even require companies like Microsoft to actively participate in an enforcement program if they provide online update services. MS Update already does a scan your installed apps. It doesn't personally identify you when it does so, but there's no technical barrier to prevent it from doing so in the future.

And the law could also be extended to require ISPs to get directly involved. Needless to say, the smaller ISPs wouldn't have the resources to be able to do this. Nor would many want to even if they could. Unfortunately, numerous independent internet providers don't fit in too well with the plans of people who like to control things. So the reluctance or inability of the smaller ISPs to get involved might be viewed as a positive side effect since that would provide a legal basis for getting rid of them as well. Then all that would be left are the major players (like AT&T, Comcast, et al.) in a brave new world finally made safe for the people corporations.

If things continue in the direction they're going, I think the future will be totally DRM-ed as far as music and video are concerned. Once CDs and DVDs go the way of magnetic tapes, it will happen.

Bucking or working around the current system won't fix anything. The only way things will change is if people start acting responsibly and come up with a business model that is fair to all parties involved.

Some place between "$18 per CD" and "free for the taking" there's an answer.

I just hope we can all stop strutting, and posturing, and shouting long enough to to find it.

 :(

f0dder:
If we end up in such a hefty DRM'ed world, I'll simply stop buying anything and go see more concerts instead. Besides, I'm sure the pirates will find a way around the protection, and then I'll have no moral qualms whatsoever pirating everything - if I'm going to be treated like a thief, I might as well act like one.

Hopefully we'll see more small independent DRM-free publishing, though I'm not betting on it.

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