[darryl]

My view is that the music industry finally and reluctantly came to terms with some of the new realities of their industry in the internet age. So lacking in vision had they been that Apple came onto the scene to provide the service that a more far sighted industry should have been providing themselves. They were almost in a war with their customers, struggling to retain their existing distrubution system and $20 plus CD's, with digital pricing meant to preserve the sales of those CD's. And, of course, they believed that all consumers were out to "steal" their products and were not prepared to pay anything for music if they could pirate it. Of course, if this was true, the industry as it is today could not exist. DRM simply does not work. Not on music. Not on video's. And not on books. A DRM scheme may work for a time, but is seen by too many talented hackers as a challenge, and is soon broken. In books at the moment, the plain unvarnished truth is that if someone wants to obtain a particular ebook for free, it is trivial for them to do so in 99% of cases. The miracle, if you want to call it that, is that most people do not. Rather than the dishonest, short-sighted people that the industry sees, it seems that most people want to pay for their ebooks. Perhaps not the $14.99 or $15.99 that the Big Publishing cartel would like, but even in these cases it seems most people are waiting for the price to become more reasonable rather than resorting to piracy. The Music, Film and Publishing Industries are now, like it or not, on the honour system. And despite their often terrible attitude to their customers, it seems that most people still want to do the right thing.

I think that what happened with music is that the record companies finally realised that the costly and inconvenient DRM they were paying for made absolutely no difference to the bottom line. The success of ITunes showed that making purchasing easy and convenient combined with more reasonable prices and allowing people to purchase what they wanted rather than forcing them to purchase "bundles" (ie; one song as opposed to an album) actually worked. They made it easier for people to purchase rather than pirate, and a large number of people were and are willing to pay even when they could obtain a free pirate copy for no cost. Personally I want to pay an author or artist for their work, though I must admit I begrudge traditional publishers the outrageous share (IMHO) that they extract.

Unfortunately it is not easy for a dinosaur to live in this modern age. The music and film industry seem to have finally faced the reality of DRM, though still struggling in many respects with their new world. Publishers thought books were immune to technology for a long time, and remained unaffected much longer than these other industries. Unfortunately, it will take time.

Realistic players in these industries must recognise that the honour system type model applies, and that some degree of piracy is inevitable and part of the business. But there still is a business, because most of us are not hard core pirates, want to pay authors and want an industry to continue to exist. The key is to make it easy, convenient and even pleasant to buy, to provide a good product at a reasonable price and to treat your customers with respect. AFter all, it is their goodwill that is keeping you in business.