I am tempet to say something. I came from the Record Industry. And I vividly remeber an afternoon in Cannes in France, in a lounge of a hotel with the founder of Napster, a guy of EMI europe, David Gresham (I think, or obe of those bigwigs), the MD of Sting Music(SA) and the manager of some little girl band, I think it was "B'witched" or something.
And the manager of the band was defending something about peer to peer exchages to the record label guys. Something like this:
Right, so you know there are two types of piracy, one is private technical copyright infringement, the other is commercial piracy.
The first, ptci, happens at the end user, it consist of illegal copy making for friends or personal use, sharing of ripped material with others without royalty regisrtation, ect.
The second, Commercial Piracy, comes mainly from china, consist of supertankers full of illegaly manufavtured CD's distributed through regular retail outlets, as well as illegal outslets.
The first is costing you about 5 to 10 % of your potential revenue at most. But it has the benifit of below-the-belt marketing which pays back most , if not more, of that revenue. (you will be shocked at the number of free concerts artists are expected to perform for marketing purpouses, to "get you introduced"...having that done by pimply teenagers who share MP3's is actualy saving you money..a LOT of money)
The second, Commercial Piracy is costing you about 30 to 60% of your potential revenue, on AVERAGE, and has zero benifits to the copyright holder.
You are trying to fight both of these now, using proposed CD copyprotection methods.
The impact of this on the first, PTCI, will be neglegible, with deminished returns in marketing due to user harrasment (frustration).
The impact it will have on the second, much more serious, threat, is, ZERO.
The impact it will have on your cost of production, per CD, to include proprietary software and mechanisms, that have to be continiously updated and managed, will be around 5% to 10% per CD , at the low end, for diminished below-the belt-returns. It will thus cost you a lot more money to fight teenagers who WANT to listen to the music, then just lettting them, and cashing in on that later.
So, gentlemen, when will you stop assaulting the fans of your artists, simply because you dont have the balls to go after the real bad guys?
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This nanny stuff with PC games these days is the same thing. It does ZERO to piracy, and is loosing the customers at a slow but steady trickle. Of course, to go the other way, requires a guy or team at the top with a lot of wisdom and insight, big balls, and a clear understanding of the big picture. Not something you get a lot these days with the prevalence of accountants as leaders.
I think what the guys was getting at is, peer-to-peer priacy, or private technical copyright infringement, is a fact oflife. Fighting it will cost you a bucket of money, and do nothing but piss off your fans. Rather roll with it, calculate for it, and, find a way to cash into it. Fighting it is like banging your head against a brick wall. Unless you are a Klingon, it's just going to hurt you.
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Topic: UK shops raise two fingers at steam (Read 2407 times)
