At the very end of an NPR story about the decade since Napster there’s an amusing quote from Eric Garland of online music tracking firm Big Champagne, where he says:
A decade from now, executives may be longing for the days–when they could blame piracy for all of their problems.
Indeed. “Piracy” makes for an easy — if totally incorrect — scapegoat. The reality is far different. As we’ve seen over and over again, those who learn to properly use file sharing to their advantage don’t see any “problems” from file “piracy,” but actually see it as a huge opportunity. That, alone, makes it clear that piracy has never been the problem, only a failure to adapt. And yet, as we’ve noted repeatedly, the industry itself is actually thriving. So that raises a separate question. A decade from now, what will industry execs be blaming their problems on? Or, will the old “blame game” execs have moved on, and we’ll be in a new industry that doesn’t even think of the challenges it faces as problems, but as opportunities?
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