File Sharing Continues To Grow, Not Shrink
from the hollywood-in-denial dept
The entertainment industry always seems to think that the next thing they do will suddenly kill off piracy. They file lawsuits, they shut down sites, they change laws, they, finally (kicking and screaming), agree to license innovative new services... and then they declare victory over "piracy." To hear industry folks talk about things these days, between the Limewire shut down, the new six strikes plan and the impending approval of PROTECT IP, piracy is somehow on its very last legs. There's definitely a sense of mission accomplished coming from them.There's just one problem with this. None of the actions taken by the industry appear to have slowed down infringement online. Instead, it appears that it just keeps growing. Yes, some legal services have been growing faster, but in typical fashion, the industry seems to want to make those services worse, not realizing that there's still a viable (if illegal) alternative for many users.
At what point will the industry finally realize that maybe there's a better strategy, one which doesn't treat fans who use file sharing as the enemy, but as a potential opportunity?
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Filed Under: business models, file sharing, growth, movie industry, recording industry
Companies: mpaa, riaa
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I can answer that in one word!
Once the game is over for them, they have no moves to play and the world they once understood has buried them as fossils; some few of them will really start observing the shape of things and then they'll see what jackasses they've truly been.
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Re: I can answer that in one word!
Yeah, I agree.
Currently, it seems that they are only relying on "hind sight" (two words, different from hindsight), which is the inability to see past one's own ass.
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Re: Re: I can answer that in one word!
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Re: I can answer that in one word!
"Hindsight" sums it up nicely.
Politics as usual, the content industry, the banking industry, regulatory capture, monopolies ... all these things are the same.
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Let them think they won. They'll stop fighting, send the troops (lawyers) back home and we can all move on with our lives... downloading stuff.
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Easier, more flexible, completion.
When the legal alternatives are easier (collect less info, work on all platforms, no DRM), more flexible (variety of formats/codec, choice of download vs stream) and have a MORE complete library of offerings than the file sharing networks, it will be easy to get folks to pay a premium.
Jusy don't ask us to pay without offering better value.
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The problem is that because of the way they have conducted, and continue to conduct, their business, an increasing number of people are unwilling to pay THEM. Whatever movie, music, book the big legacy players are peddling, there are always alternatives, often better alternative, for people willing to look.
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Why have a chart that starts at 2010? Why show mostly forecasts rather than showing some history? How are these forecasts really calculated? Does it make sense based on historical numbers?
Also, while it is presented in bytes, how many files does that represent? Considering we have gone from compressed MP3 file trading in the Napster era to today trading around blu-ray rips, the size of the files have increased dramatically. Are we actually seeing an increase in piracy by numbers of files, or only a small increase in volume of traffic?
Also, what about overall internet traffic? As a percentage, I have seen other sites saying that file trade traffic is actually down as a whole, as internet traffic is up.
It seems to me that this is a one sided story trying to make the numbers say what they want it to say. I am not shocked to see Mike run the story like it's the word of god.
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That doesn't mean, however, that this particular chart is necessarily a good data point in favor of that opinion. You already pointed out some flaws that I find compelling, and I have a distrust of statistics in general, since you can always find a way to make them say what you want.
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Can you not rip a disc?
Can you not use email?
Can you not use thumbdrives?
Do you not have a cellphone?
Can you not use IM?
Can you not find a forum?
Can you not use anonymous P2P software?
I know I can do all those things, I also know I can find free legal alternatives to anything you are trying to sell.
So really I just think you are a SOL dude that is trying to hard to discredit something you don't like instead of taking a real good look at the size of the problem and trying to be honest about it.
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Honesty is looking at the data objectively and being able to disagree with it, even when it may support your point. When he says that measuring raw bytes transferred is not a good measure of filesharing, I think he's on to something. Consider the following scenario:
Last year, 100 people downloaded the latest hit song.
This year, 1 person downloaded the latest hit movie as a BluRay rip.
If that data encompassed the totality of all filesharing across the globe:
1. Would you say that filesharing is going up, or going down?
2. What would a chart based on bytes transferred show?
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Re: Re: Re:
Can people measure what happens in LAN parties, emails, IM, anonymous networks and forums, IRC?
Can't people not fileshare exchanging files via bluetooth, DVD RW's, Bluray RW's, CD RW's, thumbdrives, SD cards, cellphones?
Can't people not rip discs anymore? can't people not rip streams from free video offerings like HULU?
So if P2P disappears does it means filesharing will disappear? will it mean the end of filesharing?
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Err, so you're arguing that if the chart isn't misleading, it's entirely meaningless anyway?
I mean, I would say that it's both. I'm just surprised you appear to be arguing my point for me.
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It's Desperation Friday on techpoop. It's just sad post after sad post. He's not even trying to hide it anymore. Of course you're not shocked to see crap like this here. Everyday is just one-sided desperate crap from M.M. Some days are more desperate than others. Today takes the cake.
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Don't they realize that the simple fact that they feel the need (and actually expend the energy) to discredit something so vehemently (and often childishly) actually makes me think that it must be pretty close to the mark on the ole' truth-o-meter?
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Do you have a better strategy? It seems like your strategy is embrace piracy
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See! No Shrinkage!
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Sameold Song and Dance
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PLEASE detail that better strategy, Mike.
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Re: PLEASE detail that better strategy, Mike.
Every Artist, and probably every album from an artist needs to have a different strategy. The Artists (and labels, etc) need to evaluate their fans / following and see what will work best to monetize THEIR followers. The only common ground is that selling plastic coasters is failing across the industry. The strategy for dealing with that needs to be innovative and specific to each artist. Someone with 1 million fans will need to do something VERY different than someone with a few hundred, or a few thousand.
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Re: Re: PLEASE detail that better strategy, Mike.
These bands do exist, and they are artists that range from Platinum record holders to Coverbands trying to make it big.
You don't have to compete with FREE, you have to compete with convenience and quality No DRM, A centralized source (don't make me hunt down dead links, or go someone else for someone from a different label), High quality digitial copies, let me put it on any device I own, etc.
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Re: PLEASE detail that better strategy, Mike.
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Re: PLEASE detail that better strategy, Mike.
Sell something other than the easily-replicated content. Use the content as advertising for this scarce good or service.
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Re: PLEASE detail that better strategy, Mike.
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Re: PLEASE detail that better strategy, Mike.
I want to know explicitly how you get ANY income when there's a ZERO cost alternative with radio.
I want to know explicitly how you get ANY income when there's a ZERO cost alternative with TV.
I want to know explicitly how you get ANY income when there's a ZERO cost alternative with the library.
I want to know explicitly how you get ANY income when there's a ZERO cost alternative with walking.
I want to know explicitly how you get ANY income when there's a ZERO cost alternative with free wifi.
I want to know explicitly how you get ANY income when there's a ZERO cost alternative with free newspapers.
I want to know explicitly how you get ANY income when there's a ZERO cost alternative with charity food bins.
I'm glad there's a lot more perceptive and intelligent people out there in the world...
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Too measurable
I am only half joking.
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Or sports cracking down on steroid use. It's the most 'roided up players who play the most games. They draw the biggest crowds. Obviously the answer is to allow all athletes to juice.
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The "fans" would be wise to stop consumer the product at all, rather than thinking they have stuck it to the man by downloading, and then paying $50 more for a concert ticket without thinking.
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Since PROTECT IP isn't law yet, and we are only just starting to see the corner turned on piracy in many countries, isn't it a bit premature to say the war is over and the IP holders have lost?
The chart shows FUTURE FORECAST usage, not actual numbers. It's a bullshit way to do things, and makes no assumptions about new laws, legal angles, and changes coming in many countries. It doesn't consider the effects of legal action like the Rojo case, or how sovereign nations might look at the lack of enforcement in other places. There is plenty of action going on behind the scenes, and things are changing.
A report that takes 2010 numbers and then forecasts out without considering any of this is just crap, and like always, Mike Masnick is there to spread the gospel.
Mike, care to explain how they got to their future numbers, and let us know if you think they are right (and why)?
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I don't buy music from the RIAA, I don't buy movies from the MPAA, I don't buy books from crazy people that can't get around the idea that not every use is not a crime and I don't pay cable.
Will any of those measures make it do it?
NO!
Could I find that content in other places?
Yes I could, is not even hard to find it.
Would I consume that content from those a-holes?
Not even for free.
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Last time I saw anything, the percentage of file sharing traffic was dropping like a stone. Mike won't touch those sorts of numbers, because it would suggest people are less and less interested in file sharing and way more interesting in Facebook.
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Are you daft?
P2P is like Napster it could go out tomorrow and people wouldn't notice.
That is not the only way to fileshare and people can do it without the industry even knowing.
You think people are not ripping the streams from HULU? VEVO?
:p
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It cost $1 dollar the price of the rental to be exactly so every kid in a school can have their very own copy of any Bluray.
And surprise it won't show up on P2P statistics.
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Did they not saw a boom like in algae toxic bloom in the ocean?
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Talk about self-destructive behaviour by the "fans".
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Really?
Amazing!
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I doubt they ever will. Remember, these are the same people who insisted that the player piano had to be stopped at all costs or else there would never be another musician ever again. (And the tape player, and the VCR, and the CD, and so on, and so on...)
Decade after decade, century after century, they'll be whining and pleading to anyone gullible enough to listen to them, demanding money "for the artists" and surreptitiously stuffing all the proceeds in their own pockets.
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The War On Piracy Is Succeeding
Same with the war on piracy. Only since pirates don’t buy anything, we have to measure the real currency they trade with, which is internet bandwidth. So the fact that they have to use more and more of that to traffic their illicit goods proves that the cost of doing so is going up. Which in turn proves that anti-piracy efforts are having a telling effect, no matter how much the freetards try to deny it.
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Re: The War On Piracy Is Succeeding
Let's think about this. You are comparing how we measure success in anti-piracy to how we measure success in the war on drugs:
Hmmm.
The war on drugs which has worked out pretty great for corporations involved in the prison industry and put lots of money into government task forces. It's also created horrific social problems and a dedicated prison labor system that benefits private enterprise.
I think you are on to something after all!
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