It’s probably become the dominant paradigm. 70% oppose internet ban for filesharers | The Guardian
You want an office application, you Google up a free one like Open Office; you want an operating system, you Google up a free one like Linux; you want to watch some animation, Big Buck Bunny can be downloaded for free; you want to make a cutting edge 3d animation, the Blender 3d image and animation creation suite is free to download; want to make 2d images, download Gimp; want to play a role-playing game, the only question is table top or online because there are great free options for both… and the list goes on and on. I once discovered a forum where people were lurking and writing free open source drivers for unsupported stuff you might want to plug into your computer like cameras, scanners and toasters (I might have made that last one up).
The idea that I might have to whip out my credit card and pay for any of this cool software and entertainment is almost alien. I can have the best, produced by helpful people who are fun to talk to (no salesmen involved, only honest developers thank goodness) and I can hit download straight away with no thought about strange creepy malware, or programs that want to take over my system.
Now some people take this idea a lot further than me. I’m just talking about the legal open source and promotional stuff that’s out there, but some people get used to this type of computing and swap copyrighted files with as little thought as the rest. By files we could of course be talking about a file with a program, an mp3, a game, a movie, a book, a role-playing game pdf etc. That small list right there covers the output of just about every creative industry producing content.
Against this background it is no surprise that the companies producing this content and asking for money for every copy of it are starting to lose money. I’ve got to say that I’m not 100% happy about that because I watch TV shows, and the TV networks seem to be light years away from working out how they are going to survive and make money in a world of file-sharing consumers (the dominant paradigm remember, the TV companies aren’t going to be able to stop it).
I haven’t a clue what that solution would look like – perhaps a download site, with advertising but no creepy malware or up-front charges, a site that didn’t try to snoop out what country you live in – but I do know that trying to stop file sharing just isn’t going to work. Even if you limit yourself to trying to stop only illegal sharing.
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