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A thought for your consideration: online piracy is about convenience, not primarily money, unless the amount of money is so high that it becomes an actual barrier.
If it is easier and more convenient to get content illegally, people will do so. If it is easier and more convenient to get it legally, people will do that. And, for the most part, "reasonable" prices don't count as an inconvenience.
I contend, without any evidence, that iTunes did more to stop file sharing than RIAA lawsuits ever could. It's just easier to spend 99 cents to download a song easily and conveniently than it is to get it through a Napster-like service.
Movies and TV shows are pirated when they are released at different times around the world. If a Doctor Who episode comes out, but won't be released in the United States for another six months to a year, people will Bittorrent it, because they don't want to wait six months. However, if it's available legally at the same time, it's just easier to get it THAT way.
If the MPAA and RIAA want to stop online piracy, they should make their material available for sale simultaneously everywhere, and at a price people want to pay. The existence of significant online piracy is a sign that, primarily, they are preventing easy legal access to the material, or, possibly, that they are charging prices that the market won't support.
But more the first than the second.
If it is easier and more convenient to get content illegally, people will do so. If it is easier and more convenient to get it legally, people will do that. And, for the most part, "reasonable" prices don't count as an inconvenience.
I contend, without any evidence, that iTunes did more to stop file sharing than RIAA lawsuits ever could. It's just easier to spend 99 cents to download a song easily and conveniently than it is to get it through a Napster-like service.
Movies and TV shows are pirated when they are released at different times around the world. If a Doctor Who episode comes out, but won't be released in the United States for another six months to a year, people will Bittorrent it, because they don't want to wait six months. However, if it's available legally at the same time, it's just easier to get it THAT way.
If the MPAA and RIAA want to stop online piracy, they should make their material available for sale simultaneously everywhere, and at a price people want to pay. The existence of significant online piracy is a sign that, primarily, they are preventing easy legal access to the material, or, possibly, that they are charging prices that the market won't support.
But more the first than the second.