Why A Little Piracy Can Be A Business Boost
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Written By Reprise Media | August 24, 2005 | Share This
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A nice post by Chris Anderson on the Long Tail blog seems to have gotten lost amongst all the Google Talk talk. It’s called Just Enough Piracy and it contains some reflections on why the quest to eliminate piracy may be misguided at its core.
The first has to do with user experience. Anderson says that companies who resort to extreme steps to make their content uncrackable run the risk of making it inaccessible to the average consumer. He writes:
“Any protection technology that is really difficult to crack is probably too cumbersome to be accepted by consumers.”
The second reason shooting for 0% piracy is wrong is pure economics. By adjusting their price-setting methods to allow for piracy at the bottom, marketers can set their price somewhere between the top and the middle. The result, says Anderson is
“Higher revenues per copy, and potentially higher revenues overall.”
If no piracy isn’t “good piracy” then what’s the optimal level? Anderson doesn’t name a numerical figure. He does say that it’s somewhere between treating consumers like criminals and letting all the money flow out of your business.
“The lesson is to find a good-enough approach to content protection that is easy, convenient and non-annoying to most people, and then accept that there will be some leakage. Most consumers see the value in paying for something of guaranteed quality and legality, as long as you don’t treat them like potential criminals. And the minority of others, who are willing to take the risks and go to the trouble of finding the pirated versions? Well, they probably weren’t your best market anyway.”
Well put.
Topics: Legal Issues |