Blog Discussion: Piracy is Progressive Taxation

[mouser]

Another very interesting discussion about piracy of digital media.

In his entry The Fan Mail That An Author Wants To Get, Nat referenced my assertion that obscurity is a greater threat to authors than piracy. That was from a piece I wrote in 2002, entitled Piracy is Progressive Taxation. It contained seven lessons from my experience as a print and online publisher:

• Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy.
• Piracy is progressive taxation.
• Customers want to do the right thing, if they can.
• Shoplifting is a bigger threat than piracy.
• File sharing networks don't threaten book, music, or film publishing. They threaten existing publishers.
• "Free" is eventually replaced by a higher-quality paid service.
• "There's more than one way to do it."

http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/08/piracy_is_progressive_taxation.html




also see: http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2006/08/yo_ho_yo_ho.php

[JavaJones]

Good stuff. I agree with pretty much everything he wrote and a lot of this has been part of my own arguments about the subject for many years. I also love his concluding paragraph:

And that's the ultimate lesson. "Give the wookie what he wants!" as Han Solo said so memorably in the first Star Wars movie. Give it to him in as many ways as you can find, at a fair price, and let him choose which works best for him.

Great wealth be to any man who will use Star Wars references thusly in prime real-estate of his concluding paragraph.

- Oshyan

[zridling]

I agree, too. At least in my own experience, everything I've ever pirated, I purchased if I liked it. What I didn't like I deleted, just like deleting a TiVo program I don't like. But recent criminal acts by the RIAA (see betanews) shows how desperate the publishers are getting.