If I steal a brick from you, you no longer have the brick. But if I make a digital copy of a song on your hard drive, we both have it. <\/p>\n
Some people think that makes all the difference, and that copying digital information is an entirely different thing from taking a tangible thing. I don’t agree, but I realize I am biased because my career has been based on the production and sale of copyrighted material. Allowing people to download it for free completely ruins the business. <\/p>\n
SOPA is an attempt to rein in some of this copyright infringement because, as we all know, people in the information business rely on copyright protection. <\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know if SOPA will pass, and even if it does, I don\u2019t know if it will solve the problem. I tend to doubt it. It may curb it somewhat, but it won’t solve it. People will find new ways to \u201cshare\u201d copyrighted information. <\/p>\n
If you ask the anti-SOPA crowd how people who rely on the sale of content are supposed to survive in that kind of environment, they say we have to come up with new business models. <\/p>\n
So, what kind of a business model can work in a world where you can\u2019t sell your content because everybody downloads it for free? <\/p>\n
Well \u2026 you could put advertising right in the middle of your content. I don\u2019t mean a little space add over on the side, or an ad on page 4 of a 6-page report. Those things can be removed. I mean that the advertising is built into the content in such a way that it’s inseparable. <\/p>\n
Here’s a ridiculous example that occurred to me this morning … <\/p>\n
Yesterday all my truffles seemed so far away,
\nBut Fed-Ex delivered them in a day …. <\/p><\/blockquote>\nOr, in the next Jason Bourne movie, he’ll be wearing a Coca Cola hat, and he’ll give us a little discourse on why he prefers Smith and Wesson handguns. And in the next piece of fiction you read, the main character will not only remove his shirt, but tell you wear he got it and why he prefers that brand. <\/p>\n
Hey … make your choice. Either pay for content, and protect the rights of the people who sell it, or expect all content to become a commercial<\/b>. <\/p>\n
Not that this is a complete solution, by the way. It may work to some extent for consumer products, but what kind of product marketing are you going to do in high-end, expensive legal and compliance services? <\/p>\n
Anyway, that’s where we’re headed. If the producers of content can’t rely on sales for revenue, they’ll have to go to an all-advertising format, and it’s going to be more invasive and annoying than commercials. (At least at first. It’s possible that some people will learn to do it well.) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If I steal a brick from you, you no longer have the brick. But if I make a digital copy of a song on your hard drive, we both have it. Some people think that makes all the difference, and that copying digital information is an entirely different thing from taking a tangible thing. I …<\/p>\n