Quote:
Originally Posted by Lemurion
We also know that under normal circumstances many if not most people are perfectly willing to pay for things they could otherwise steal. Just visit any busy produce stand and you will see what I mean: people lining up to pay a busy salesclerk while the produce is there for the taking, and without the five minute wait.
Yes, some people do steal, but not enough to destroy the business model, which has functioned effectively for millennia.
It works because enough people want to pay, or at least feel they should pay that theft is kept low enough for the business to remain sustainable.
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There is only one problem with applying this idea to electronic files, and that is web anonymity.
People don't steal at a produce stand, because of the concern of being identified and caught (either immediately, or the next time you're out in public). Most theft is headed off by showing the potential thief that they are not anonymous.
On the web as it is designed today, users can (mostly) establish anonymity, so they can steal and have no fear of being identified and caught. This creates more of a casually dishonest atmosphere on the web, and changes the business dynamic radically. Losses (not price, the proportion of stolen goods to sold goods) are higher, and a business must decide whether it needs to take steps to mitigate the larger amount of loss.