Dragon_fury used our news submit to tell us "It looks like some people are smart enought to realise a couple of things that we understood a long time ago...."
Yes, apparently the media moguls have finally awakened and have the smell of coffee flooding their olfactory sensors.
There are several money-spinning models that could turn P2P into a golden egg for commercial entertainment companies. Paid-for-pass-along, in which firms receive money each time a file is shared, along with various DRM solutions and advertiser-based options are all being considered. "We see there are going to be different models for commoditising P2P," said Marc Morgenstern, vice president of anti-piracy firm Overpeer. "Consumers are hungry for it and we will discover new models together," agreed Mr Morgenstern. But many net users will continue to ignore the entertainment industry's potential controlling grip on content and P2P technology by continuing to use it for their own creations. Unsigned bands, for example, use P2P networks to distribute their music effectively, which also draws the attention of record companies looking for new artists to sign. "Increasingly, what you are seeing on P2P is consumer-created content," said Derek Broes, from Microsoft. "They will probably play an increasing role in helping P2P spread," he said. Looking into P2P's future, file sharing is just the beginning for P2P networks, as far as Mr Broes is concerned. "Once some of these issues are resolved, you are going to see aggressive movement to protect content, but also in ways that are unimaginable now," he said. "File-sharing is the tip of the iceberg." |
Wow, thanks for the powerful insight. It is interesting though that all the "models" leave out the all-important partner in this little venture, us! Of course on the other hand, we have always known that if content providers were ever to capitalize on P2P, they needed at least a couple things. First they needed a bulletproof content wrapper that would stymie the less scrupulous of the netizens from distributing said content for free. Then, of course there is an enormous amount, and arguably the best content already riding the ether without a bit of protection, so they need a way to control that situation. So far, all the lobbying and legal posturing has only produced a hammer and a whack-a-mole game that the industry is rapidly losing.
So in the face of failure, maybe they have set aside their prejudice of assuming all of their customer base to be not much more than a bunch of pirates, and will shift their business strategy to offering a legal alternative in hopes of gleaning whatever profits they can from the moral ones in the bunch.
I have an idea, how about a free broadband connection for the masses that will have to use their time, equipment, media and money to download these massive files and manufacture these products for you? I might go for that one! Otherwise, these "products" will have to be a heck of a lot better deal than iTunes or Napster tracks or you wont have any of my business.
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Source: BBC
