zatanna: It pisses me off kind of that there’s such a horrible stigma towards downloading comics — but it’s ok to download MP3s, videos, movies, and even hundred dollar programs (oh hay photoshop). I think this is a shady subject, but I stand my ground on it. This post pretty much sums up a generation’s attitude to media (and this post shouldn’t be seen as me picking on Zatanna). Content creation companies fight so hard on things like DRM and legislation precisely because of this. Because for every single person who buys a lot of stuff and downloads a little, there will be a lot more who just download everything and pay for nothing. And the end result for the consumers and fans is: risk averse, low quality, formulaic, cheap rubbish. There aren’t any easy fixes for this. People will always download stuff if they can. But the attitude that “it’s ok to download MP3s, videos, movies, and even hundred dollar programs (oh hay photoshop)” is probably the most frightening thing for whole industries. And as this attitude gets more prevalent, expect legislation to change accordingly (in favour of content creators).

zatanna:

It pisses me off kind of that there’s such a horrible stigma towards downloading comics — but it’s ok to download MP3s, videos, movies, and even hundred dollar programs (oh hay photoshop).

I think this is a shady subject, but I stand my ground on it.

This post pretty much sums up a generation’s attitude to media (and this post shouldn’t be seen as me picking on Zatanna).

Content creation companies fight so hard on things like DRM and legislation precisely because of this. Because for every single person who buys a lot of stuff and downloads a little, there will be a lot more who just download everything and pay for nothing.

And the end result for the consumers and fans is: risk averse, low quality, formulaic, cheap rubbish.

There aren’t any easy fixes for this. People will always download stuff if they can. But the attitude that “it’s ok to download MP3s, videos, movies, and even hundred dollar programs (oh hay photoshop)” is probably the most frightening thing for whole industries. And as this attitude gets more prevalent, expect legislation to change accordingly (in favour of content creators).

1 year ago