Tag: digital piracy

It all started with a chat. I came late, so I didn’t get to see this presentation by Robin, but the blog post covers it pretty much (it’s a good read, so if you haven’t read it, read it now!). Robin basically says that the digital era is a major shift in many things and should not be viewed just as a new ‘channel’, but also a new way of thinking. Taking a different approach, so to speak. I’ve written about this several times, even here on Dailysocial, and I generally believe that the audience has changed. Not only because of things going digital, but a true paradigm shift in the industry itself. The changes happened in large part due to the digital, unlimited copying nature of the Internet, but it impacted non-Internet industries as well.

But let’s step back a bit and look what a business is. Many businesses basically take one thing, a product or a service, and try to sell it as many times as they can, with minimum effort in modifying the product. At some point the money they invested in making the product or service can be recouped and they can make a profit. The recorded music business, in essence, is not selling music, but selling the music product; i.e. CDs, cassettes, vinyls. Produce and record once, and essentially sell copies of that recording. Even music copyright is constructed around this. The payment of royalties is based on the amount of copies sold. Of course, any copy obtained without any payment of royalties, is viewed as a copyright infringement. The act itself, whether or not for commercial gain, is known as piracy.

Continue reading [Music Monday] Forgetting About Digital Piracy