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North American Network Operators Group Date Prev | Date Next | Date Index | Thread Index | Author Index | Historical Re: Senator Diane Feinstein Wants to know about the Benefits of P2P
On 30-aug-04, at 23:31, Jeff Wheeler wrote: the problem is that while in the 'real world' this wasn't a big issue (a user giving away copies of the latest CD they bought from their front porch wasn't likely able to distribute it to too many people, and it cost them money to do it) on the 'net it is an issue (user has no noticeable costs, and the distribution is world-wide).New technology only allows people to do more efficiently what they were already doing. Home copying didn't kill the content industry before and it isn't going to do it now either. People still buy books, they still go to the movies, they still buy and rent DVDs. And yes, they even buy CDs from time to time, despite the generally very low value for money. Now the content industry assumes that people will buy more if they can't get it for free. I'm sure this is true to a small degree, but most people who copy content do it because it's impossible for them to buy the content, either because it's not available or because they don't have the money, or because they find the content in question of too low value to actually buy it. (Of course "available" means NOW, people don't want to wait.) In none of these three cases making the copying impossible leads to increased sales. I think the content industry knows this very well, but they just can't stand not being in full control over their stuff. Remember, these are the same people that force you to go through their stupid DVD menus rather than being able to press "play". Without the pressure of home copying they wouldn't have any incentive at all to behave reasonably.
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