We live in an era labeled by many as the information age. Information has never flown so freely and quickly as it does today, when websites like Wikipedia reduce your parents’ collection of the Encyclopedia Britannica to nothing more than paperweights or doorstops. Creations such as Google Books and the Amazon Kindle have taken paperback and hardcover books alike into a paperless era. Information is flowing fast and this trend is visible in every industry, most notably the film and music industries.
The root of the conflict in these industries is a difference in perspective between consumers and media publishers. One camp believes ideas and innovation should be owned; while the other believes ideas and information should be shared. This difference is what gave birth to media piracy. So who is right? The answer is neither and both. The fundamental problem with issues like this is that they are differences in perspective and there is no such thing as an objective view.
The truth of the matter is that the technology behind digital piracy is a good thing. It has pushed the envelope in publishing digital media and has made the access and distribution of media easier than ever. In other words, it is innovative. Yet it is also disruptive. This kind of innovation changes the business model of an industry, the way people think about the industry, and the way people do things in that industry.
Some of the greatest things we know today were created by people labeled as pirates. Musicians once labeled Thomas Edison as such when he invented the phonographic record player. They believed that he was going to kill live music. Later, when the royalty system was designed, it gave birth to what we know today as the music industry. When Williams Fox and his friends refused to pay Edison licensing fees to make movies, they moved out of New York to create a parallel moviemaking business which later grew to become one of the largest movie industries in the world: Hollywood. They, too, were labeled as pirates. It is ironic how the two major industries that hunt pirates were born through the same means.
Media piracy cannot be eradicated. No matter how many people are sued or how often BitTorrent is used, replacements are going to crop up. People will always find a way around the most recent obstacle put up. That’s just the nature of technology. It is a more efficient way of distributing data as well as publicizing media, so naturally it is the
next step.
Fighting change cannot work, and fighting positive change will definitely not work. The best thing is to compete with these pirates. The game is simple: The most convenient system will win. Find a way to monetize the pirates’ system or create an even more efficient one. Remaining stagnant and fighting for your position is not going to help the situation. That battle is futile.
I am not encouraging the theft of the fruits of sleepless nights and hard labor. I am only saying that there are prices to pay when you live in a quickly evolving capitalist-driven world. Competition is the game and adaptability is the winning formula.
For years, RIT has been breeding pirates. Is it any coincidence that the Motion Pictures Association of America lists RIT as the eighth highest movie pirating college in the nation. In the midst of a major rebranding effort by RIT to be recognized as an innovation institute? We are in a college filled with early adopters and visionaries. The administration has noticed this and is encouraging it through Imagine RIT and the construction of the Innovation Center. My hope is that, when the time comes and RIT students are truly innovating, the creation of controversial technologies will be recognized and embraced by the institute. It is only in this kind of environment that students will be able to reach their full potential.
