With high-speed Internet access, we have
reached the point where even voluminous full-length feature films are being pirated in
essentially the same way as songs. We could
soon be facing an environment in which the economic reward for creating
professional-quality content of all kinds is no longer sufficient to justify its continued
production.
One way to address this threat is to create
content that wouldn’t be the same if it were downloaded.
What would be the point of downloading an
unauthorized copy of a modular item from the type of interrelated content tapestry
described in this essay, if the user loses the ability to navigate at will to other
related items? He might attempt to also copy
related modular pieces, but no matter how big a gob he selects, he ends up cutting himself
off from the ability to explore potentially interesting related items.
Also, why would he go to all this trouble,
purely to avoid seeing an ad? (Or in a pay-per-click environment, paying maybe a nickel?)
In multi-media works of this type, the
sheer volume and complexity of the linked-to materials and interconnecting logic the user
would have to understand and copy just to get a single modular unit to function within
itself will tend to make theft an even more unattractive option.
In the final analysis, complex
interdependence among content items could prove to be the only deterrent to online piracy
that is truly effective.
© COPYRIGHT 2004
ROBERT WINTER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Linked modular work will be better able to resist theft.
