Geodog

Tim O'Reilly on Evolution of Online Distribution

I'm sure everybody and their brother will be linking to Tim O'Reilly's article, Piracy is Progressive Taxation, and Other Thoughts on the Evolution of Online Distribution, and with good reason. Tim O'Reilly takes a good look at his experiences in the book publishing industry and comes up with 7 lessons for the music and film industry:

Lesson 1: Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy.

Lesson 2: Piracy is progressive taxation

Lesson 3: Customers want to do the right thing, if they can.

Lesson 4: Shoplifting is a bigger threat than piracy.

Lesson 5: File sharing networks don't threaten book, music, or film publishing. They threaten existing publishers.

Lesson 6: "Free" is eventually replaced by a higher-quality paid service

Lesson 7: There's more than one way to do it.

A far cry from the "it's stealing" vs. "they want to take away all our rights" debate so frequently heard. Highly recommended.