The Wonders of Piracy

Sudara Williams essentially advocating for piracy:

Some folks would rather Google and do a five minute download than spend $15 on an album.

Perhaps that same person will blow $60 on a concert, or $25 for a piece of vinyl they will play once. Maybe they are in college, and when they get a job the situation changes. Maybe they will turn five friends into hardcore fans, who in turn will buy records, t-shirts and concert tickets.

Who knows?

I call Balderdash! There's a lot of maybes there. And no matter how old you are or how much you make there's always something else to spend your money on. This article essentially claims that pirates are *accused of "screwing over artists, stealing, and being entitled" — as they should be — because that is the unvarnished truth. Piracy is a problem and Sudara Williams are simply trying to justify it.

Having said that, Williams makes a great point a little later on:

The record industry has fought unsuccessfully for a dozen years trying to stop sharing. They have diverted ridiculous amounts of cash to this cause (broke artists, anyone?). They took blame and guilt to fascist levels – threatening, suing, trying to push through new legislation. Has anything changed?

This is what the music companies (and now Hollywood) fails to understand time and again. Steve Jobs nailed it back in 2003, you can't sue it out of existence and the answer is not to treat people who've bought the content like criminals... the answer is to compete with it. Offer something better at a reasonable price. I think most people want to be honest – just make it easy.