Quote:
Originally Posted by cmbs
Gotta love these "I'm an honorable thief" or "it's the publisher's fault I have to break the law" threads.
Far as I'm concerned, if mobile read is so upright, they shouldn't allow talk of illegal activities on their website. Surely there are forums just for honorable and unwilling-but-forced thieves where they can discuss this stuff.
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Freedom of information, maaan!
I'd agree that it's not fair (or logical) to blame the publishers for an individual's desire to take something for free that they would otherwise be paying for, but it's also unrealistic of the publishers to expect to be able to maintain complete control of their content in the current technological climate. Seems like even encrypted/copy-protected media will almost always end up being pirated, and failure to recognize this reality and plan for it will always increase the damage done to a distributor's bottom line. Please don't mistake me saying that for the attitude of "they should know that people are going to pirate, so it's okay to pirate" or "it's okay to pirate because the music and movie industries just don't get it...you gotta adapt, grandpa!" as I have seen people argue plenty of times as justifications for their stealing/distribution of copyrighted materials.
The big point is that piracy isn't going away any time soon (if anything, it will probably get easier and easier), and anybody trying to market a product that can be pirated will eventually need to take advantage of the styles (and routes?) of distribution that piracy uses as a key tool for generating awareness of that product. In one form or another, yes, you probably do need to put your product out there in some form in order to lure people into buying it.
A lot of the things that we see used to market these "piratable" types of media today would have scared the crap out of publishers a few years ago ("You're giving the first chapter away
for free?!" "And people can go to your website and listen to the song any time they want...
for free?"). In other words, frustration about and denouncement of piracy isn't going to make it go away, but paying attention to methods in which it takes advantage of modern interconnectivity is what will make or break the long-term viability of many publishing and distribution entities.