Re: The Seven Types Of Pirate

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On 10/14/2010 07:24 PM, joseph harris wrote:
> Breaking laws is not the sustainable  way to bring about change, nor
> a thing to encourage.

Huh.  Really?  I am trying to think of a time when civil disobedience
(i.e., breaking laws to bring about change) has worked...

I realize that invoking the civil rights movement is a grandiose
analogy.  However, the very point at issue here — and the one that
continually seems to be your bugaboo, Joseph — is that the law *can be
wrong*.

Further, you seem to continually be unable to grasp that a person might
argue a point not his own, as Barry was attempting to do.

I generally avoid these discussions, like many other people on the list,
and I won’t follow up on this thread at all; I’ll make my point and get out.

Many people *feel* that copying ebooks (and digital music) is OK.  This
does not mean that it is OK.  But they *feel* it is.  Telling them it is
illegal will not change their *feeling*.  Calling it stealing — when it
patently does not deprive another of their property (not potential
income, but property) — only exacerbates their *feeling*.  I am
emphasizing the word *feeling* here precisely because it is emotional,
illogical.  Arguing points of fact with this emotion will not work.

For the digital content industries (meaning producers of music, books,
and software) to survive at profit, they must acknowledge and work with
the reality on the ground.  Attempts to change people’s feelings can
succeed if they are based in reality — i.e., acknowledging what people
feel and why, and working from that starting point.  Attempts to change
the situation by telling people what they should feel, or that they
should act at odds with those feelings, are doomed.  Stating that an
action is illegal, when the illegality *feels* irrational and the odds
of getting caught are trivial, is pointless.  Compare people’s reaction
to speed limits (at least in the US).  It is generally accepted that
speeding up to 10 mph over the speed limit is perfectly acceptable and
safe behavior, as long as one taps the brakes as a token gesture if one
sees a police officer.  The speed limit laws are disregarded, and
telling someone that they ought to follow them because they are the law
will get one laughed out of the room.

The software industry is ahead of the curve on this.  After trying to
enforce increasingly strict DRM terms throughout the 1980s and early
1990s, they have generally given up.  License keys apply for large-scale
corporate software that few have an interest in pirating, but retail
software either charges for support contracts, bundles with hardware, or
is a loss-leader for some other service.

Indie music and ebook publishers are working within the framework of
reality as well; selling unlocked content, and expecting the real fans
to pay while the “pirates” run the risk of becoming fans.

But the major producers (big record labels, big publishers) are still
trying to apply atom-based business models to bits.  That business model
is doomed.  They will either adjust their models to the reality on the
ground, or they will fight and lose a protracted war of minds.

I will now yield the floor to the gentleman from Great Britain, who will
doubtless impugn my morals.

~Chris
- -- 
Chris Maden, text nerd  <URL: http://crism.maden.org/ >
“I like being free, and that makes me an idiot, I suppose.”
  — Stan Rogers, “The Idiot”
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