Alternative to SOPA - Make Piracy your Friend

[Marc Perkel]

THE IDEA
========

OK - here's an idea for a solution to the piracy problem that is a
win/win solution. This eliminates the need for SOPA. It is an outside
the box solution so think deeply. The idea is:

Don't try to stop piracy. Make piracy your friend!

What we not call piracy - people copying movies and songs over the
internet - can be look at as a free advertising and distribution system.
Allow files to be uploaded - downloaded - copied - and distributed. The
more the better.

All files will carry ID tags and public keys etc that identify the
copyright owner, rights information, how and where to buy the product,
web site of copyright holder and/or artist.

Media players will recognize these ID tags and be able to allow user to
immediately purchase anything with a single click that is tied in
through paypal or google wallet or itunes and apps store or any number
of micropayment system.

Those who provide music players would have an incentive in getting a
small piece of the transaction giving them an incentive to install that
capability.

The idea is that this is a new paradigm. Piracy becomes free
distribution and advertizing. Kids download - they like it - they pass
it on - they blog about it - and because it is both cheap and easy -
they buy it. At least enough of them buy it that the RIAA makes a bigger
profit than they are now.

The model assumes that higher volume at lower costs is more profitable.
1 movie at $10 is the same as 10 movies at $1. The RIAA and MPA also
eliminate their advertizing and distribution costs. No CDs on plastic
being shipped. All money is pure profit.

The paradigm shift is - yes - there will be piracy. There will be a LOT
of people who don't pay. There will be more who don't pay than those who
do pay. but that's OK because the real test is if the amount of profit
in the new system is greater than that of the current system. I say it
will be. And I have evidence to support that.

Even those who don't pay benefit the copyright holders. They download it
and play it for free. They like it and pass it on to 10 friends and 2
friends pay. Thus the one who didn't pay resulted in 2 sales. The person
who didn't pay likes the music and uploads it to a popular blog and
thousands download it resulting in hundreds of sales and even greater
distribution.

In this model all the copyright holders need to do is put it out there
and spend the money that is automatically deposited in their bank
account by the system.

WILL IT WORK?
=============

I came up with this idea back in 2002 and presented it to EFF who was
disinterested in solutions at the time. Since then a number of things
have happened in the world where this model is already working. Several
major players are already doing similar things and it works. This is a
PDF I had made to explain it:

http://www.perkel.com/piracy.pdf

We are all familiar with Apple iTunes and the 99 cent songs. Google is
now selling media through its app store. Amazon is doing it. Then there
are the unlimited subscription models where you pay $8/month for all you
can eat. Netflix/Pandora radio, etc. There are advertizing supported
models like broadcast radio and TV. No one wants to throw me in jail for
watching "Desperate Housewives" on my TV without paying.

But - you ask - why would people pay if they don't have to?

PIracy would still be illegal. But like possession of small amounts of
marijuana in California it would be at best an infraction. You don't
have to pay, but you are expected to. Much like leaving a tip at a
restaurant in America. You don't have to tip, but people do it anyway.
AND - this is important - the media players make it both cheap and easy
to pay. It's one dollar and one click. It can even be less than a
dollar. When I divide how many shows I watch on Netflix in a month into
$8 it come to like 25 cents a movie.

And .... this is also important - the music industry is your friend -
not your enemy. The business model where the recording industry sues the
customers for uploading a baby video with music to YouTube - how does
that make sense. That's not marketing - that terrorism.

Example:

Proposed law fir singing a Michael Jackson and uploading it to YouTube -
5 years in prison.
Killing Michael Jackson (manslaughter) - 4 years in prison

MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
=======================

In the 1990s I owned a small software company. Had 3-5 employees and
sold about $2 million in network control programs to companies like
PG&E, Wells Fargo Bank, Chase Bank. I had online trial downloads and I
exhibited at trade shows.

It quickly became apparent that there ware people pirating my software.
I tried to fight it at first but I soon realized that 2/3 of my business
was coming from piracy. People were copying my programs and passing them
around and they were ending up in major companies who were sending my
large orders. And in my case these were not inexpensive programs. So as
wierd as it seemed at the time - this was working. Piracy was my friend.

CONCLUSION
============

When you have a system that isn't working it's time to rethink
everything and come up with a completely new paradigm. One thing that
everyone agrees on is that what we have not doesn't work. Everyone is
unhappy.

The new paradigm suggested here is now proven to work. Netflix, Apple
iTunes, Google, Amazon, Pandora, all working. Making money - happy
customers. If you changed the distribution to include piracy - it would
even work better.

For example - now you have to download iTunes songs through iTunes and
you're limited to that source and what they sell. But suppose you
download a song from a web site that was just recorded yesterday? You
play it on your iTunes player, you like it, and you can immediately
purchase it through iTunes because the artist has embedded information
into the song file to do that. Apple not gets a new sale and $$$ without
even having to do anything. And the new purchase is automatically added
to Apples inventory and is now searchable. The possibilities of ways to
market media are endless once you get rid of the idea that a lot of
people are going to not pay.