And they wonder why internet pirates so often act like they’re trying to preserve dying media. Its because they’ve created an environment where that’s true. If I want to watch a version of the original star wars trilogy without a bunch of wibbly wobbly CGI bullshit, do you know how hard that is?
The vast majority of internet pirates aren’t unreasonable scoundrels fueled by hatred of media, they’re usually people who love media and analysis and see that the current system doesn’t actually benefit the people making the stories we love and doesn’t preserve those stories once produced
In general, we think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem. For example, if a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate’s service is more valuable. Most DRM solutions diminish the value of the product by either directly restricting a customers use or by creating uncertainty.
Spotify, Netflix (in it’s earlier days) have shown that time and time again. People love convenience. We are ultimately lazy animals. I think if you created a streaming service tailored to really old, obscure shit and you gave it a reasonable price, people would buy it.
And they wonder why internet pirates so often act like they’re trying to preserve dying media. Its because they’ve created an environment where that’s true. If I want to watch a version of the original star wars trilogy without a bunch of wibbly wobbly CGI bullshit, do you know how hard that is?
The vast majority of internet pirates aren’t unreasonable scoundrels fueled by hatred of media, they’re usually people who love media and analysis and see that the current system doesn’t actually benefit the people making the stories we love and doesn’t preserve those stories once produced
Gabe Newell’s quote from 13 years ago will never not be relevant in such discussions:
Spotify, Netflix (in it’s earlier days) have shown that time and time again. People love convenience. We are ultimately lazy animals. I think if you created a streaming service tailored to really old, obscure shit and you gave it a reasonable price, people would buy it.