Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I wasn't referring to that aspect of it (which I entirely agree with, BTW). I was referring to taosaur's comment that p2p downloads show that someone likes your product, so you should stop trying to protect it and concentrate on making it cheaper. That argument could equally be applied to cars as to music tracks, and I'm afraid that I think it's rather silly  . |
But maybe you are comparing apples and oranges, because cars are so much more expensive than files. At some price point, it becomes a waste of time to steal something, because a new one can be had for very little more.
Cars will never get there. But with files, you are dealing with things which, at a certain price point, are just easier to buy than to fool around with Bittorrent. Amazon provides a good example for a place where the ease of purchase is a big factor. I've bought things at Amazon that cost me MORE simply because it's so darned easy. No entering this number, no typing in my address, no concern about how long delivery might take, or what happens if there's something wrong with the product.
When it comes to audiofiles, it's easy to get free music files. I listen to Coverville and often hear a song I would like to hear again. I could use AudioHijack to capture a streaming file, but the Coverville web site has a link to every song the host, Brian Ibbot, plays, available on Amazon or iTunes. So it's a whole lot easier to just buy the song. I remember when Brian started Coverville, and the RIAA lowered the boom on him, & refused to sell him a license to play their songs. But in a very short time, they wised up to the fact that Brian was
advertising the songs, and [I]selling[I] them.
I can't tell you how many times I've heard a song on Coverville, went to iTunes, and wound up buying more than one track by the same artist, or went to Amazon and bought the whole CD.
The point of all this is that when you are dealing with files which have a relatively low price, people's behavior is different than at the much higher price point that is represented by a car.