Paul Tassi has a nice aritcle in Forbes entitled You Will Never Kill Piracy, and Piracy Will Never Kill You. In it, he makes an observation that I think, while common, is right on the mark. That observation is that the vast majority of people who illegally download content do so because either the content providers will not sell it to them in the desired format or make it so hard to get it that it’s just easier to get it from Pirate Bay. The majority of people, he says, would be happy to pay for the content if the providers would just make it available. Consumers have become use to easy access to content and resent friction to their obtaining it. They don’t want, for example, to have to go to Best Buy to get a DVD; they want to be able to rent or buy a movie from their computer or home entertainment center.
He makes a pretty persuasive case that the only thing standing in the way of convenient tools for content delivery is that content providers are stuck in the last century and refuse to adjust their business models. They want to continue to continue to overcharge their customers for content in formats that their customers don’t want. To protect these business models they offer us SOPA and PIPA.
It’s a thoughtful piece and well worth a read. It’s too bad that the people who really need to understand its message will ignore it. While we’re at it, Julie over at Samurai Knitter makes much the same points but in a far more colorful way.