Leo Gomes, writing in the Wall Street Journal, reviews the top tech trends of 2007. His list includes:
- Flash Memory
- Hobbyist-Generated Content
- Piracy
Piracy is hardly a business plan, but his message was that the inability of media companies to stamp out piracy is affecting how they do business, with DRM cited as the major issue. I believe that the major appeal of piracy is not the price, but rather the convenience. It lets consumers do what they want with media. I doubt there is a single consumer who likes the idea of DRM because it delivers NO customer benefit.
DRM opponents (who probably include everyone) fall into three main categories:
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- Idealists
- Anarchists
- Freetards
The vast majority of people fall into the first category; they see digital media as analogous to traditional media. When purchased, fair usage should be obvious and not interpreted after the fact by the owner. It should not matter when, where or on what it played on, just like a book or DVD. The buyer should have a perpetual right to use it and the right to resell it if he desires. A media company that insists that the DVD, cellphone version and computer version of a movie are three separate products is just asking the consumer to buy one and “steal” the other two. The only thing standing in the way of this concept is the technology and infrastructure to do it. CloakX has solved this problem.
Anarchists (who think there is no such thing intellectual property) and freetards (who think they just shouldn’t have to pay) cannot be satisfied. Would you like to know the name of the VC known as the “top VC in NYC” who says he is “proud to be a freetard?”