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Unauthorised content consumption.
It always amuses me when I read these sort of threads and see people getting all hysterical about lost income due to unauthorised content consumption.
There are basically 2 different types of downloaders:
1. Try before you buy. Self explanatory really, if they like what they download they will buy it, or buy something else from you, recommend you to friends, etc. So there is a potential you might make money from them that you wouldn't make if they hadn't downloaded it. The only potential lost sale would be if they bought something they didn't like. But would you really want to take their money on that basis?
2. If it is free I will have it. aka Freeloaders, hoarders, etc -- see it, download it, burn it to a CDR, file it away, forget about it. Over 99% of the books they download will never be read, so they certainly wouldn't be buying any of them, not even at a car boot. The only way to make money from those people is either through selling advertising at the point of download (or within the product itself), or by selling them the blank media on which to store all their downloads.
If, as all the content producers seem to want, and are prepared to buy MPs in order to obtain, all the unauthorised downloaders were sent to jail or kicked off the internet forever, they would make no money at all from type 2, and lose any income they were already making from type 1. There would also be a knock on effect on the blank media industry, nobody would bother with fast internet connections, so the ISPs would suffer too.
Then there's the whole new can of worms that presumed guilt upon accusation would open up. If it works for unauthorised content consumption and terrorism, it will work for other crimes too. The amount of money such a system would save the government would be quite staggering.
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