Tim O'Reilly's Thoughts On The Evolution Of Online Distribution
from the seems-so-obvious dept
Tim O'Reilly has written a great column talking about his observations about what online distribution means for the publishing and entertainment industries. He takes a lot of what other people have been talking about and says it with such common sense it's almost scary to see how far most of the industry has completely misunderstood the very nature of online distribution. He points out that obscurity is a much bigger threat to artists than piracy ever is. I always thought it was funny that Hollywood keeps saying no one will make music, books or movies without economic compensation... when they seem to forget the thousands of starving artists out there. An even more important point is that file sharing doesn't threaten the entertainment industry - it threatens existing companies in the industry, which is a huge difference. I've been saying for years that Hollywood is killing themselves fighting this new technology. They think they're saving themselves, but all they're doing is opening up a huge opportunity for new, smarter companies to eat away their business. The entire article is absolutely worth reading.
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