The RIAA, MPAA, book and magazine publishers, all the so-called guardians of intellectual property, they all have it wrong.
They go after people who seek out goods.
Instead they should be suing the companies that restrict access to those goods.
Apple, Google, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Sony — and every other company that’s set itself up with the You Must Buy From Us one-store model.
That is the lesson to be learned from the following:
How to save the music industry
Yes, there is the iTunes store. But that’s so far from elegant it’s a joke. Example: you are told about this great artist called Bombaclat who makes sick dubstep tunes. To get his music on your ipod so that you’re brockin’ out to wobble on the train you can do it in a couple ways:
1. Search for ‘Bombaclat’ on and download some random tunes or an entire discography, open iTunes, drag the songs into your collection and hit sync, wait some time
2. Open iTunes store on your ipod/iphone, search for the artist, realize they don’t actually have anything on itunes, give up
Why is my music purchasing on an iphone/ipod limited to one store? Why can it not just find the goddamn music I want on the internet and get it on my goddamn phone already? One app that can get music from iTunes, Amazon, Beatport, Juno, anywhere. A global music standard with central servers that distributes music to the masses no matter where the hell it has come from or where the hell it’s going to. We have the technology, all we need now is the money and manpower to make it happen.
Boldfaced emphasis added by me.
Nature does not like monopolies.
Nature does not grant monopolies.
Monopolies fail.
Previously here: