Monday, May 13, 2013

It's built in.

One of my posts got a link in another blog and that got a link in another blog. And after reading those I got to thinking on all the ways companies are trying to stop online piracy. When it comes down to it I don't consider piracy to be all that damaging to any industry, really all that is lost is a sale. And that's working on the assumption that those doing the stealing would have bought it had they not been able to steal it and the assumption that if it's good that the thief won't buy a legit copy.

If I pirate a movie from FakemagicInc then FakemagicInc is out one sale and so theoretically they are out whatever they charge for that movie. A movie, I probably wouldn't have gotten had it not been free to pirate.

If I steal a DVD from BigboxstoreInc, then BigboxstoreInc is out what they paid for that DVD, the profit they would have made off the sale of the DVD, and the DVD meaning they can't sale it to the next person.

Do you know what shrinkage is? Well for companies like BigboxstoreInc 'shrinkage' is industry jargon for "stuff that will be stolen". Now most Big box stores do things to discourage people form shoplifting mostly in the form or visual security  And they do catch people, but the number they catch is far lower than those that get away. Less than one percent of thieves are caught. And still these companies are not taking crazy measures to try and stop the theft. They work around it, they figure shrinkage into their business models, and purchase orders, and profits. And I'd like to remind people that I'm talking about actual physical items being stolen. That is to say the actual loss of money not just a loss of theoretical business.

In light of the fact that all that is lost with piracy is a theoretical sale, I'd like to see the various industries just accept that as long as there will be items made there will be pirates, and spend more time making their product the best they can be.

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