Judge: RIAA can unmask file swappers

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Piracy, in terms even the RIAA should be able to understand

Pirates are not customers, nor do they result in lost revenue. Pirates are a write off, and have NO negative effects on the bottom line of a copyright holder's core business. In their model, the RIAA would have everyone believe that pirates are their customers, and are resulting in lost revenue, when in reality, the pirate represents an unmeasurable (and thereby irrelevant) piece of the market that exists only because piracy is allowed to happen. With the absence of piracy, the market share of the pirates is nonexistent, and thus can't contribute to revenue.

This is because the pirates would not be purchasing the copyrighted works in the absence of piracy. They only copied it, because they were able to for free, and if forced to pay for it, would not choose to own it. Therefore, whether piracy exists or not, there is no revenue coming in from these "pirates."

In simple terms, that even the RIAA can understand, here is an example:

Joe owns a restaurant and he sells pizza. It just so happens that Joe's pizza is really nasty, but some people still buy it anyway. Now, Mr. Pirate thinks Joe's pizza is nasty, and would never pay for it. However, if someone offered to give Mr. Pirate some of Joe's nasty pizza (say day old) for free, Mr. Pirate would gladly take it. Somehow, in the RIAA's mind, Mr. Pirate represents "lost revenue," even though technically the revenue didn't exist in the first place. Their strategy of forcing people to pay for the "nasty pizza" that they wouldn't have purchased in the first place, is misguided, when instead they should be concentrating on making a "better pizza," and improving the demand for their products, thereby turning Mr. Pirate into a consumer that can contribute to their revenue streams. That is so simple, even a 4 year old could understand it, heck, even some of the crack-addicted, drunken aged hippies that can't sing or perform music (yet somehow still have recording contracts) can understand it. Some of the elected officials in this country may need it explained to them (very slowly), but they can probably understand that too.

If the work was good, it would be purchased, as a copy no matter how perfectly it is copied, is always inferior (if only slightly) to the original. It is copied only because it can be, and because the person who is getting the copy doesn't deem it worth purchasing. If he couldn't copy it, he wouldn't own it. End of story. I'm not saying that piracy is acceptable, but the RIAA tactics are seriously misguided.

Posted by: tamuhockey   Posted on: 07/28/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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