P2P Tech Time

As time rolls and networks get faster, piracy gets larger, and companies get greedier I step back and look at P2P from all sides. I’m a person who believes all information should be free, but at the same time i find myself not sharing my own source code for the apps i write with the world.

Why is this? Maybe i’m a

selfish programmer who wants his code all for himself. Or maybe i just don’t want to be a part of the open source world. Whatever it may be I just keep my code to myself. Now on the other hand i give my apps away freely. When i write apps it usually out of necessity and if i can use them i bet someone else can also.

Now back to the P2P aspect of it, I can understand why recording companies and movie studios get upset when people pirate their work. And if I was in their position i would probably be mad to, but you have to take what you get and see what its really good for. The fact that someone pirates your work gives free advertising. Their are some movies that i wouldn’t have even given a second look to if I didn’t see a pirated copy over someones house. If the movies is worthy I actually go out and buy the actual DVD. I know everyone doesn’t do that but for the ones you do you can accredit that sale to piracy. Without it there wouldn’t have been a sale. As far as movies in the theater go, I have young kids, its hard to go out when you have kids. For some it might not be because they have extra help, but for others the movies is not an option. Studios of all sorts need to start embracing P2P For what it can do. Most people that say P2P hurt my sales is out of their minds. The reason i say that is the person who pirated your song or movie would not have purchased it legally in the first place, but if you are creating quality work, you have a lifelong fan because of p2p.

I think their needs to be more working together from both sides. I say put your content on the networks and let the buzz get around. That way you get free advertisement and may bring in some long time fans. Work with the ISP’s to get content legalized. If you create a flat fee that you can collect at the ISP level it cant do anything but benefit everyone. I wold gladly pay 5 or 10 bucks extra for a music service to get anything i want. Some people might not want to pay, and if they don’t that’s fine, but if they get caught add the fee to the next months bill and everyone is still happy. These are ideas im sure have been thrown around for a while but, if you keep and open mind and start to think outside the box things start to get done.