Quote:
Originally Posted by nekokami
As Tompe wrote, to collect. It's a packrat mentality. I saw it back when people were copying C64 diskettes, I see it with people who download every free 3D model they find, even though they can't even keep track of what they've got, I see it with people who tape movies off cable even though they never find time to watch them. They like HAVING them.
I don't think that describes everybody or every download, but I think it's a lot of what's going on. That's one of the reasons I'm not too worried about darknet traffic.
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I'm not worried about darknet traffic either. It's like "shrinkage" in the retail trade: it can be reduced but not eliminated, is a cost of business, and somehow, retailers cope.
One difference in darknet downloads is that shrinkage is impossible to measure. There's no way to know how many illegal copies of whatever are downloaded, and what effect it has on sales. And in some cases, producers may not care.
A chap I know was tracking downloads of comic books. The day after an issue hit the stands, high quality scans of the pages het the net. He wanted to know who to talk to at MArvel and DC about it to help stop it. The blunt answer was that Marvel and DC didn't
care. The value for them wasn't in the sales of the physical books. It was licensing the rights to the characters for film and TV production. Going after the folks who scanned the comics and made them available wasn't worth the effort.
Yes, the pack rat phenomena exists. People get things because they can. But I don't thnk that describes the motives of all or even the majority of folks who get stuff off the darknet.
P2P may or may not result in greater publicity for, more awareness of, and higher sales for an author. I don't know. But as mentioned, it's simply a distribution method, like email attachments or stuff up on a website for access through http or ftp.
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Dennis