I saw a rather interesting article in Forbes a few days ago. Written earlier in the month by contributor Paul Tassi, it covers the war on Piracy and why the RIAA/MPAA and all their cronies are ultimately fighting a losing battle. The problem, Tassi writes, is that the lobbyists and executives are coming out swinging at air, raging against a foe that is decentralized, incorporeal, and, ultimately, unstoppable.

See, no matter what measures the anti-piracy camp brings to the fore, the pirates will find a way around it. They’re crafty like that. What’s more, depending on how brutally draconian these measures are, they might even use them to reason that they hold the moral high ground – that they’re ‘sticking it to the man’ with what they’re doing. The problem is that people look at the big, faceless corporations that are leading the fight against piracy and they react in extremes. They demonize the corporations, treating them as sovereign entities.

To be fair, the entertainment industry isn’t exactly doing much to improve its public image, suing individual down-loaders and making outrageous claims($75 trillion in damages? Really? That much money does’t even exist), and generally showing the world that they couldn’t care less about their customers or even the artists they claim to represent. In a world where boycotting a business doesn’t necessarily mean you have to stop using their product, well…

You see where I’m going with this, right?

The long-standing opinion of the MPAA and RIAA is that they’re essentially the ‘content mafia.’ They’re greedy. They’re corrupt. They care nothing about innovation, or technological advancement, or change. All they care about is making a quick buck. All they care about is forcing the rest of the world to conform to their outdated, broken business model. Of course, this is all old ground we’re treading here. We’ve already discussed this during the ongoing battles against SOPA, PIPA, and now ACTA and PCIP.

To make matters worse, we have businesses like EA bringing out DRM that’s so invasive we see paying customers resorting to piracy because it’s easier than putting up with being treated like a thief for having purchased the game. Couple that with bogus legislation that decrees anyone who purchases digital content is purchasing a license to use it (that’s right, you don’t actually own any of your games, or music, or movies), and, well…

Is it any wonder people don’t want to give these corporations their business? Is it any wonder that there’s virtually no taboo surrounding the illegal download and copying of digital media, immoral though it may be? And what are the record labels doing? What are the entertainment executives doing? What are the big producers and developers doing? Can they see the writing on the wall? Do they understand that the times have changed, and they’re still mired in the past?

Do they realize that they’re slowly hastening their own destruction?

Nope.  They’re essentially sitting on the floor, poking their fingers in their ears, and bawling like petulant children. As Tassi notes, they’re raising movie prices. They’re charging exorbitant amounts for DVDs, ignorant of the fact that customers who even deign to buy media nowadays are doing them a service. They can just get everything for free online, and no one will think any less of them.

It has to stop.

What can be Done

Gabe Newell, the founder of Steam. ”The way to defeat piracy,” he said in an interview, “is to provide a better service than the pirates.” That’s it. That’s all there is to it.

We’ve already seen hints of this new method of distribution with platforms like Netflix and the iTunes store. Why doesn’t the industry follow suit?  If the lobbyists and anti-copyright businesses would just swallow their stubborn pride and adapt themselves to a new business model, if the RIAA would just establish a reliable, safe, easy means of obtaining music online, if the MPAA would allow people to download a new movie for $10 and play it wherever and whenever they wanted… I guarantee they’d benefit in the long run.

But they won’t.

They’ll find ways to justify their losing battle. They’ll find arguments in favor of wasting billions on anti-piracy measures. They’ll continue arrogantly pushing forward, unwilling to admit that what worked in the 1980s simply doesn’t work anymore. They’ll keep treating the consumers like unwitting trash, unable to recognize that consumer disillusionment is half the problem.

As for the lobbyists and politicians,  if they’re keen on introducing legislation to combat piracy…they need to do their research first. None of this SOPA/PIPA nonsense. None of this invasive censorship, treating average citizens like criminals. None of this blatant disregard for technology that’s become the lifeblood of our society. If they’d only do their research, maybe they could draft a bill that wouldn’t immediately lead to public outrage.

Again, they won’t- most of the Old Guard, as it were, are too proud to admit that they have no idea what the hell they’re talking about.

Now, as a caveat to the above, the issue of piracy is a complex, multi-faceted one. Media piracy isn’t the same as Video Game Piracy, not by a long shot. And while platforms like Steam have certainly done wonders for reducing the rate of piracy, they’ll never defeat it. It’s like the war on drugs- it’s an impossible battle to win. There’ll always be people who want to get something for free, and who’ll go to great lengths to acquire it.

The trick is making sure you’ve got enough loyal customers that the pirates can be ignored – that enough people like your business that piracy is once more seen as something that you simply don’t do.

Image Credits: [Alan Cross, Mizozo]

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