Project To Brainwash Kids Not Working So Well
from the we-don't-need-no-education... dept
While the entertainment and software industry insisted that education campaigns would somehow convince people to stop file sharing unauthorized works, it appears that plan hasn't worked all that well (a shock to all of you, I'm sure). Over in the UK, where the campaign has been even more blatant at times, with regular showings of commercials before movies that people paid to see accusing them all of being thieves, people just don't see unauthorized file sharing as a crime. They do recognize that it makes life tough on the producers of those works -- but seem to understand that it's a business model issue that those firms need to work through. When the automobile was introduced, it made life difficult for buggy makers -- but that's part of the cycle of things. No one thought they were "stealing" from buggy makers when they bought an automobile. Of course, amazingly, the researcher behind the study pointing all of this out still thinks the various industries should continue this campaign, rather than learning to adjust their business models to a changing market. He compares the effort to education campaigns against smoking and drunk driving, which is an unfortunate comparison. Smoking and drunk driving risk killing people through health dangers. Unauthorized file sharing just risks obsolete business models and companies that don't adjust. There's a big difference.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Is it any wonder?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Is it any wonder?
When the small companies go out of business, all you will be left with is Microsoft products and Open Source (or freeware) products (many of which are quite good, but the majority are crap).
Perhaps small software companies that want to stay in business and survive the "sharing" will have to implement mechanisms that make life for the end user more difficult (i.e. does anyone remember software dongles?).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Is it any wonder?
I always thought they keys were kind of cool, but useless. They should have had some kind of functionality beyond allowinf the program to run. Then they'd really be cool. And what if you had a lot of programs that used them? I suppose a printer/data transfer switch would be in order then.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Is it any wonder?
>>>> I wonder what happened to them?
Employee theft. If it's not superglued to the port then it will go wandering, especially if the software is only used occasionally.
And if it is glued to the port, you just know that your printer won't work through it.
That, and the crackers had worked out how to de-dongle the software anyhow.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Enough with the buggy makers!
I'm begging you -- come up with a different example! If I had a nickle for every time I've read about the trials and tribulations of buggy makers on this blog, I'd have retired by now. Quit torturing your regular readers with repetitive rhetorical flourishes and COME UP WITH ANOTHER EXAMPLE!!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Enough with the buggy makers!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Enough with the buggy makers!
Lets say I go into your house and see you invent a delicious new type of sandwich. If you make one of these sandwiches and I take it off you and walk home with it (maybe eating it on the way, laughing maniacally to myself), then I'm taking a tangible thing that belongs to you, thereby depriving you of it.
If I go to your house and see you make that delcious new sandwich, then go back to my house and make a copy of it with my own ingredients, what am I stealing from you? It's hard to say. If you're a professional sandwich maker you might argue that its not fair because if I want one of those sandwiches you invented I should be buying them from you. Maybe I'm depriving the sandwich pro's of income, but frankly if they didnt insist on charging £12 a !*#*ing sandwich and then rub my nose in it by riding around in Ferraris all day long, maybe then I'd have some sympathy.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Enough with the buggy makers!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]