Your formatting got screwed on a copy/paste I assume, bit difficult to read.
You could also include all the credit card numbers and ACH information for all the accounts in the world on that same drive. I guess that means its OK to use those numbers?
How can so many software guys really believe that their bits are more valuable than the bits created by media companies? Or that stealing is "ok" just because it's easy if you know how?
The media industry has done a shit job of making its product easy to buy or making money ad supported. They're in decline because they have done such a bad job adapting. But someone will figure it out.
Entertainment will definitely evolve, but it won't go away. There's a lot more to learn reading pg's request for ideas than reading pro-piracy posts like this that seem to litter hacker news.
Once released bits become common knowledge and they lose a large amount of their potential value because the scarcity element is instantly gone.
This is one of the driving engines behind the the whole software-as-a-service game, it gets rid of the problem of piracy and it turns the product into a subscription rather than a one-time sale.
No second hand version of google docs will ever be sold.
And what about the ACH information? If you came across that sort of data you would feel free to use it to transfer a few million bucks to your own account? It would be just as easy as copying a movie. So if the data is out there, you are arguing that it's OK to do that?
You used google and facebook as an example, they are clearly not releasing binaries but are in the service industry. Mobile applications (which I think are a transient phenomenon that will evaporate when mobile web applications will be more viable, the same happened with desktop software, with some notable exceptions) are already pirated wholesale (see http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20107572-94/how-piracy-ruin...) that doesn't make the writers of mobile software 'chumps', but it does mean that they will have to factor this in or they will likely be hurt.
> It would be just as easy as copying a movie, and the data is out there, so you are arguing that it's OK to do that?
No, obviously I'm not arguing that it is ok to do that.
As to ACH information, it depends on what you mean by "use those numbers," since they have no inherent value. If you mean reading them for fun, I would be OK with that. If you mean using them to drain money from people's bank accounts, that would not be okay, but it also wouldn't be copying (since the original would be destroyed). If you knew of a way to copy money from one account to another, I would be completely fine with you copying my checking account in full.
I know you would probably prefer that people think about stealing and unauthorized copying as the same thing, but there is a difference and it's important. One is completely physically undetectable to the victim, and the other isn't. How can you tell the difference between your CD selling poorly because people are pirating it, and it selling poorly because it sucks? Without widespread snooping on other peoples' electronic communications, you can't. If someone drained your bank account it would be trivial to detect.
But the analogy to mobile is interesting. Mobile app revenues are absolutely booming, and mobile apps dont require inconvenient or invasive protection schemes. Mobile apps are easier to buy than pirate, and they are reasonably priced. It's bizarre to me that most of the good content isn't available for streaming, when I'd be perfectly happy to pay per view.
I dont have any media in my home. It's all streamed. My friends who pirate all deal with torrents and file conversions and moving files around. And honestly I dont have time for that. It's far cheaper just to pay for it. Or not watch it at all, because most of the good content isn't available for streaming. Which is the real problem.
Yes, I think that my bits are more valuable than the vapor created by middlemen.
But there's more important issue: Once I have 100000 books, 1000000 songs and 10000 movies on my hard drives, I might lose desire to have any of their bits at all. I don't even need them produced because the bits already there are just as fine.
While I dont watch a lot of TV or see a lot of movies, I certainly respect the impressive work that goes into them.