Andreessen Says Copy Protection Efforts Are Doomed
from the of-course-they-are dept
At the National Association of Broadcasters meeting this week, Mark Andreessen told the industry that they really ought to give up this silly copy protection fight. He points out (correctly) that the industry ought to look at this as feedback from customers who obviously aren't getting what they want - and then see it as a huge opportunity. Instead, they just see it as a threat. He then compares the situation to the early days of the software industry where there was tremendous piracy - and some useless attempts at adding copy protection. However, when software makers embraced their customers and offered good software at reasonable prices they found companies and consumers willing to pay. I'm not sure if I agree with the software analogy, but I do think the entertainment industry does need to start looking at this as an opportunity, instead of a threat.
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Rant warning
The truth of it is over the next few years people simply will not be purchasing physical media anymore, such as CD's. All of this stuff will be distributed over networks. All home entertainment hardware having will come equipped with a very capable network connection to large depositories of media.
The entertainment industry should stop trying to protect it's antiquated distribution model with pointless copy protection and focus on how it's going control distribution in the new global digital economy. If they don't get it, then they will not survive. That may not be such a bad thing considering the amount of garbage that's produced at the moment.
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Hmm.
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Re: Hmm.
I also believe that the majority of software pirates would never purchase the software anyway. Obviously, that's not always true, but in the majority of cases it is - meaning that these aren't "lost sales" to the software industry.
If software piracy was such a problem then no software company would be making money - which doesn't seem to be the case.
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Re: Hmm.
I think you also should make a distinction between software pirated by business versus software pirated by home consumers. Yes, I agree that businesses are probably getting better about licensing, but are home consumers? It's just as easy to pirate a copy of Max Payne using Morpheus as it is to grab a few Beatles tunes. It's also pretty easy to file share video games, and I'll bet that there is A LOT of that going on. The only really limiting factor today is bandwidth - it's a lot easier to download music files with a slow connection than software/games.
Just my opinion, of course, and admittedly biased due to my dislike of Andreeson. If you ever look into where the Netscape browser REALLY came from you might feel the same. Frankly, I think he's an unethical turd. Again, just my opinion.
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why people love streaming
Don't they just love them because it lets them get music for free that they would normally have to pay for?
Also what is with that random quote from Bill Gates "Open Letter to Hobbyists". Is that supposed to support Andreessen's argument, or counter it?
- adam
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Copy protection etc.
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