Is sony in trouble? "blu ray killer" to come out in early 09

[Dodece]

The irony about this story is they are ecstatic about their anti piracy measures. Which all but ensures that their venture will fail. Such features are universally bad for manufacturers. Hardware manufacturers are at cross purposes with media providers. They want to sell hardware, and anti piracy features radically decrease sales. For the simple reason that piracy has always been a necessary feature of media formats. A ghost the industry does not want to acknowledge. It doesn't matter how many studios get on board if the hardware manufacturers cannot cut themselves a real profit.

The hardware market is very dependent upon piracy. In fact they couldn't sell their products in many markets without piracy. Piracy establishes a secondary market and a secondary purpose. Without piracy VHS would have never thrived as it has. Thanks to the piracy by consumers of television programming. The same holds true of Compact Discs, Audio tapes, and even DVD. The ability to copy is paramount for a media formats success.

What corporations need to come to term with is that piracy is going to persist, and if you ever make it impossible you effectively kill your product. Over half the planet is dependent on piracy to justify the purchase of the hardware. Most consumers buying pirated media are not evil or mean spirited. They are just poor. They cannot afford to spend more then a dollar for a movie.

The best deterrence against piracy is an appeal to consumer conscience. The reason most people who can afford to buy legal media do not pirate is, because their conscience prevents them from doing so. The same with all theft for that matter. For most people stealing generates bad feelings. You know what overcomes that though a sense of vengeance. Which is what happens when they are treated as criminals, or are forced to deal with exotic ordeals. Do that and you fast learn they will teach you the meaning of an eye for an eye.