We Should See Other Blogs

After The Pirate Bay was shut down recently (only to come back up two days later), I had some thoughts on piracy and internet distribution in general.

First off, piracy exists for a reason. Several, actually. The main ones are that it’s free, and that it’s at the user’s control. People like things that are free – even if it means ad subsidised, like Google or television in general – and even more than that, people like to have at least some control over what they watch and listen to.

There has always been this limitation with music, television, and movies: the record companies and studios choose what you get, and when you get it. Television, for instance, has historically had a schedule that dictates what time you can watch a show at. Which, due to past technological limitations, has made at least some sense. The internet, however, has broken down those barriers. You can, theoretically, get the show anytime you like after it’s released and watch it anytime you like.

Witness also the rise of the MP3 player. Even stronger than in the past due to the ease of buying mp3s (or aquiring them however you may), they allow music listeners to cast off the shackles of things like radio. No one likes being told what to listen to.

What you can say for music executives is that they’ve at least given people some freedom in that area, even if they were dragged kicking and screaming into it. You can’t say the same thing for television and movie executive. Tell me, where are the alternatives to theatres, physical discs, schedules, and time restraints? Where is my freedom to watch what I want when I want to?

Not there. This is one of the major reasons piracy exists. While movie execs are concentrating on closed formats and movies with picture quality so high most people won’t even have the equipment to appreciate said quality, their customers are saying “screw your theatre, screw your movie store, screw your packaging,” and doing it themselves.

And it’s not going to stop anytime soon. The MPAA can try as much technological wizardry as they like, the fact remains that due to their inertia – the legacy of massive theatre chains and the distribution model they’re addicted to – will prevent them from giving people what they want.

I, for one, don’t much like the theatre experience. Some disagree with me. Others agree. And there’s no reason why we can’t have both, is there? And why should we have theatre megaplexes that we must flock to in order to see the latest garbage Hollywood dictates?

As long as people can get content from their televisions to their computers – which they can, even if it means an attendant loss of quality – there will be piracy. And as long as I, the customer, can’t get what I want when I want it despite the studio’s manifest ability to actually do that, piracy will exist.