Senator Diane Feinstein Wants to know about the Benefits of P2P

Mon Aug 30 22:04:41 UTC 2004

On 30-aug-04, at 23:31, Jeff Wheeler wrote:

> the problem is that while in the 'real world' this wasn't a big issue 
> (a user giving away copies of the latest CD they bought from their 
> front porch wasn't likely able to distribute it to too many people, 
> and it cost them money to do it) on the 'net it is an issue (user has 
> no noticeable costs, and the distribution is world-wide).

New technology only allows people to do more efficiently what they were 
already doing. Home copying didn't kill the content industry before and 
it isn't going to do it now either. People still buy books, they still 
go to the movies, they still buy and rent DVDs. And yes, they even buy 
CDs from time to time, despite the generally very low value for money. 
Now the content industry assumes that people will buy more if they 
can't get it for free. I'm sure this is true to a small degree, but 
most people who copy content do it because it's impossible for them to 
buy the content, either because it's not available or because they 
don't have the money, or because they find the content in question of 
too low value to actually buy it. (Of course "available" means NOW, 
people don't want to wait.) In none of these three cases making the 
copying impossible leads to increased sales.

I think the content industry knows this very well, but they just can't 
stand not being in full control over their stuff. Remember, these are 
the same people that force you to go through their stupid DVD menus 
rather than being able to press "play". Without the pressure of home 
copying they wouldn't have any incentive at all to behave reasonably.