Piracy

Before I go any further, I must point out that I am against piracy. That said, I am also strongly against SOPA, PIPA and any other legislation that assumes everyone is guilty until proven innocent, and that anyone and everyone with the means to commit piracy will automatically do so.

Here's the problem:

Fact 1: Music, movies, books etc. can all be stored as files on a computer system. Music on CD, movies on DVD, photographs and e-books are all stored as files. Compare this to vinyl records, celluloid films, videotape and printed books - those media aren't file-structured; they're not even digital. Copying them means having specialised equipment, so piracy isn't the problem with these that it is with digital media.

Fact 2: Files are easy to copy from one system to another over a network connection.

The upshot of these facts is that while the entertainment industry embraces the ability that digital technology gives them to distribute their product easily, at the same time that same technology makes it easy for anyone with a computer to make pirated copies.

It seems that what the industry wants to do is make sure that they're the only ones that can make the copies; they don't appear to have grasped the fundamental fact that the technology itself makes that impossible.

So they've tried a couple of different approaches. One is by using yet more technology, in the form of DRM and encryption mechanisms. The major problem with this is that it still has to allow copying to some extent; for example it's perfectly simple for me to rip a CD on my computer then burn a copy to leave in my car so that I don't need to worry about the original being stolen or damaged. On the other hand if I were to then sell that copy, that would make me a pirate. There's no way the technology can determine my intentions and stop me from burning copies to sell. (Let me make myself clear on something: I'm a software professional and I don't pirate music, videos, software etc. I'm against it in principle.)

The other approach is legislation, and so far almost every attempt at this has been a farce; DMCA, for example, is a total mess.

The root of the problem is that the entertainment industry wants the benefits of the technology, but they want to keep distributing music and movies the same way they always have - in shops, as if they were vinyl records and VHS cassettes.

Entertainment industry execs, here's a clue: That Doesn't Work. This simple fact should be plainly obvious by now. If you sell things that are easy for anyone with a laptop to copy and share, then some people are going to copy them and share them (and forget DRM and encryption; someone, somewhere, will crack it wide open within days).

The real answer - the only answer, from where I sit - is that the entertainment industry needs to work out a completely new way to sell their products. A way that gets away from the old vinyl-and-VHS way of selling things, and takes into account the fact that those products can and will be copied. A way that works for the producers and the consumers, and doesn't place the producers' rights to make a living above the consumers' rights to enjoy the products in any reasonable way. (Message to the industry: We consumers pay your wages. Don't forget that.)

And if you're asking me for how that might work, forget it; if that was that easy, someone else would already have thought of it by now. Entertainment industry, the ball is in your court.