For some time we have been eagerly looking upon how the fate of the online music swapping frenzy is developing. Attempts are being made to convert the massive piracy into yet another cash cow for the music corporations. The same is basically happening for video and e-books, though that’s beneath the noise level that Napster is causing, so many people don’t notice it.
While Napster has gone for tea with the enemy, others seemingly have joined the crusade for free online music that Napster is rumored to have abandoned. Think FreeNet, Gnutella, and not to mention the alt.binaries newsgroups. To cut a long story short, you can get music if you want. You can also get video and e-books for free as well. There is not a single thing the industry can do to prevent this regardless of how hard they try. This is what makes law-abiding citizens around the globe nervous — not! It is cause for great concern amongst the ranks of people who need to make money off the music (and other content). I am using the term music here because it’s what people are aware of, but what I am saying holds true for all forms of digital media.
Until now, the most effective approaches we’ve seen are the subscription models. In the case of Napster, there’s a seemingly unlimited range of music available for such a subscription, in contrast to more limited portfolios from some of the newer competing services (some of which have backing from very big players). They will get their subscription fees. Napster will stay a viable source of income for Bertelsmann even if most of its subscribers switch to other free music sources. Web sites that offer media in a digital-rights-protected format will probably not suffer from the consequences of free media as much. I am centering this article on the millions of files that are not protected. You cannot undo the invention of the now famous MP3 format.
There will always people who will get something for free if they can get it.
Free media is only a symptom. It is not one of technology but of technology outgrowing current licensing and royalty schemes. You can try as hard as you want, but you will not make the technology fit these schemes in a satisfactory way. If you protect, somebody will unprotect. If you just license, somebody will pirate. The problem is tackled the wrong way, all the large corporations are centering on technology, only to spare them having to think and adapt their ways of licensing. They prefer to talk to the big people to get consumers’ money, not to the consumers. Big mistake!
As of now it is incredibly difficult to put together a legal CD. Or to put Star Trek videos legally onto your Web site. You just cannot get the licenses for content if you are not a corporation yourself. With the Internet everyone is a publisher, but not everyone can acquire the licenses to be able to publish legally. The problem is that the corporations still think, “first you buy the license, then I’ll give you the stuff.” It’s based upon the notion that the license is the key to getting a physical media — you paid in the store and then took the CD home.
Today the situation is reversed: I can get the content if I want. I am not limited to getting it in a store, but I cannot get a license because music companies refuse to talk to me and it’s simply too painful. Corporations hope that being unable to buy licenses will deter me. Wrong! If I can get the content I want (because it’s there) most other people can and will, too. And the word of how and where gets spread even more quickly than you can read this article.
People have been collectors ever since the Stone Age. I know a limitless number of people all around the world that just keep collecting: MP3s, TV series episodes, e-books, etc. We are all collectors. Who doesn’t have a directory on his or her hard disk where he/she puts all the pictures/sounds/videos that make their rounds in office e-mail?
I believe I have proven that everyone can get what he or she wants and keep it. So this instantly proves non-feasible any approach relying entirely on technology. The only way to get out of this mess is what I am hoping to propose right now.
I (the consumer, one of the millions of mini-publishers out on the Net) want to purchase licenses to legalize content I own if I desire to do so. Why isn’t there a Web site (a central license repository) where I can register a CD I have burned, where I can list the tracks I have put on my CD and pay the royalties with my credit card? I would be able to choose if the CD is just for myself or for somebody else, and this will adjust the rates. This could even be incorporated into Windows Media Player or Nero, for example, to optionally and automatically purchase a license for the stuff I am burning if I choose to. The same would work for any kind of content and media. People with massive MP3 libraries would be able to painlessly legalize their possessions. There could be a tool that allows me to create a content list by scanning my hard disk, download royalty rates, select the files to legalize, and again pay securely for the chosen items. In turn I would get an online certificate that I can show if the legality of my content is in doubt.
Yes, I am aware that with this approach it will still be easy for cheaters to cheat. But I will make it even easier to de-criminalize the individuals who want to pay their dues, but lack a possible way to do so because the current licensing schemes are sorely outdated. Once corporations understand that they have lost control over content distribution (and have no hope of regaining it), they will have to accept that they can no longer get their fees for the physical media, but for the content from the consumers, not from the logistics.
It’s a win-win situation for corporations as well. They can stop investing in futile maneuvers trying to stop the unstoppable and instead gain millions of legal distributors of their content. They will gain invaluable information on what kind of content sells and what does not, so they can fine-tune their offerings to make even more money. They will earn money from the licenses being bought. Isn’t this what they want?
Oliver Drobnik is a 26-year system administrator and developer at an Austrian cellular network provider.