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Old 08-05-2008, 09:24 AM   #67
Steven Lyle Jordan
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The best word to describe our current situation, regarding e-book piracy, copyright infringement and legal interpretation, across international boundaries, would probably be "churn."

We are at the head of a young and wildly-growing industry... or more accurately, a new section of an old industry. It is much like a section of ground bordering the ocean that has only recently been opened to direct connection with the water: While the older, established beaches have been worked by erosion into smooth sand and pleasant tidal action, the new section becomes crashing waves, riptides and jagged rocks before erosion gets to work on it.

E-books represent that new, jagged shoreline... the forces of economic nature are working on it, but they haven't been at it long enough to smooth out the edges and give us nice beaches yet. And there's really little the consumer can do to rush the process... like erosion, economic forces usually happen at their own pace.

All other media... books, movies, radio, television... have been through similar "churn" periods, enduring various amounts of economic chaos until the organizations concerned, usually with a little help from government-imposed regulation, worked out standards and methods of practice, figured out profit models, and cooperated in such a way as to make themselves and their customers happy. (Actually television did not have much of a "churn" period, as it largely used the already-established radio model). Today, books, movies, television and radio are enjoyed by the public, and profited upon by the corporations... a nice, soft, friendly beach for all.

History shows that when the public as a whole is satisfied with a particular market, they accept the conditions of that market, and losses from theft are reduced to easily acceptable levels. In such an atmosphere, we would not see massive piracy from the Darknet or Torrents, just as we do not at present have a serious bootleg television show problem (TV gets its profit from advertisers, often before their shows are even broadcast).

So right now, the onus is on the corporations (and, to an extent, on cooperating international governments) to create their publicly acceptable market. So far, the public has resisted all efforts at corporate or government imposition of any semblance of order, mainly as they have felt that the result has not yet been beneficial to them (DRM, high prices and conflicting formats do not a happy consumer make). This means the corporations (and governments) need to work harder to ensure an even playing field, to create a market that they and their users will be happy with.

Until they do, we'll continue to see "churn." But eventually, the economic forces will erode all the jagged edges down to comfortable levels. We'll just have to wait it out, and try not to cut our feet on the rocks in the meantime.
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