...with almost every point in this article. I will respond to only two.
The first question you ask in the article hits the nail on the head. No industry can compete with free, and consumers have proven time and time again that they will go to great lengths to devalue the content they consume. An example of this is the Ad Blocker add-on to Mozilla Firefox. People aren't even paying for most online content (only indirectly paying for the access) and yet we have an independently developed program to remove what is in most cases the only revenue source for content providers.
The next point you make is that trust is really what's needed. I agree with you in part here, but in my opinion you're approaching the issue from the wrong perspective.
As Apple's iTunes has shown, en route to becoming the largest music retailer in the world, companies are more than willing to sell unprotected content once we the consumer's have earned level of trust that we will respect the value of said content. Trust in the provider already exists, and is largely irrelevant. Take news media, for example. We see a situation where we have highly regarded, and trusted content providers (we'll use the NYT's and WSJ). Two of the nations longest standing and most reputable journalism outlets are dieing off for one primary reason: the value of the content they provide is not respected by most people in today's "I want, I want, I want" culture. People prove that they trust these traditional sources, as individuals continue to frequent their sites and blogger's continue to regurgitate their reports. These two outlets are now instituting plans to charge for the content (NYT's is still in development) that people already have trust in. Unfortunately, as is being shown with the WSJ's paywall, people are not willing to pay for trusted content when they have other (usually less reputable or accurate), free sources.
All that being said, consumption now exists at a level which was largely unheard of prior to the explosion of the internet. We have "access" to hundreds of thousands of content sources now (mostly fragmented), and we want a lot of it. With the fees we pay to our internet providers, and each content provider, the costs add up all too quickly. Perhaps the only real solution is to break our culture of its "I want, I want, I want" mentality.
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Couldn't Disagree More...
The first question you ask in the article hits the nail on the head. No industry can compete with free, and consumers have proven time and time again that they will go to great lengths to devalue the content they consume. An example of this is the Ad Blocker add-on to Mozilla Firefox. People aren't even paying for most online content (only indirectly paying for the access) and yet we have an independently developed program to remove what is in most cases the only revenue source for content providers.
The next point you make is that trust is really what's needed. I agree with you in part here, but in my opinion you're approaching the issue from the wrong perspective.
As Apple's iTunes has shown, en route to becoming the largest music retailer in the world, companies are more than willing to sell unprotected content once we the consumer's have earned level of trust that we will respect the value of said content. Trust in the provider already exists, and is largely irrelevant. Take news media, for example. We see a situation where we have highly regarded, and trusted content providers (we'll use the NYT's and WSJ). Two of the nations longest standing and most reputable journalism outlets are dieing off for one primary reason: the value of the content they provide is not respected by most people in today's "I want, I want, I want" culture. People prove that they trust these traditional sources, as individuals continue to frequent their sites and blogger's continue to regurgitate their reports. These two outlets are now instituting plans to charge for the content (NYT's is still in development) that people already have trust in. Unfortunately, as is being shown with the WSJ's paywall, people are not willing to pay for trusted content when they have other (usually less reputable or accurate), free sources.
All that being said, consumption now exists at a level which was largely unheard of prior to the explosion of the internet. We have "access" to hundreds of thousands of content sources now (mostly fragmented), and we want a lot of it. With the fees we pay to our internet providers, and each content provider, the costs add up all too quickly. Perhaps the only real solution is to break our culture of its "I want, I want, I want" mentality.
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by Nathaniel J Smith.
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