The Internet is in its infancy. Electronic information still travels along copper wires left over from the industrial revolution, but the information age is about to hit puberty. Fiber optic cables are sprouting in unexpected places. The piracy and chaos we are collectively experiencing is growing pains.

    For a few awkward years, the situation is only going to get worse. But soon enough the labels, studios and every other paranoid media owner will have to stop acting like petulant teenagers. The time has come to address piracy with some real, sustainable solutions that consumers will support. The time has come for the entertainment industry to grow up.

    ACT I: THE SET-UP

    Current system is shot to hell. Heads buried firmly in sand.

    A few months ago, the writer and NYU professor Clay Shirky told me he thought DRM was a “nostalgic” idea. Nostalgic is the best adjective I’ve heard to describe how most large entertainment companies think about controlling their content in a digital era. Big media continue to view the situation through rose-tinted spectacles while consumers see red. When being a pirate is the easiest way for people to access the content they want in the format they want it in, then something has gone very, very wrong.

    There isn’t a moral defense for stealing in most cases. But there isn’t a moral defense for invading people’s privacy and imposing draconian laws to protect outdated, crumbling business models either. Music and movie piracy is rampant because over the last ten years, the market has utterly failed to provide a wide range of preferable legitimate solutions. If this continues as bandwidth increases and download speeds accelerate, the entertainment industry will be left in ruins. Many think that needs to happen for new business models to form. I think those currently in power simply need to grow a set and confront the reality of the situation.

    So far the search for new revenue streams by the big labels and studios has only turned up one that they seem to be comfortable with: the legal department. It’s impossibly difficult and expensive for the average consumer to use music legally in podcasts, on websites, in remixes, or in public speeches for example. But if you do decide to use music illegally, it’s entirely possible that a huge team of lawyers will come at you like a troop of rabid spider-monkeys. Instead of looking at real solutions, all the labels seem to be doing is exacerbating their problems.

    Pretending the current laws or legitimate options for consuming movies and music online are in some way going to stop piracy from turning the entire entertainment business into a giant anarchic swap-meet is like pretending recycling plastic water bottles will single-handedly end global warming. The problem is the entertainment business doesn’t recognize the giant anarchic swap-meet for what it really is; a great way for them to make a ton of money.

    ACT II: CONFRONTATION

    Licenses replace sales. Labels accept reality, or die.

    CD sales are in freefall, (the arrival of the Mac Book Air this week was perhaps the final death knell for the format) and the legal department is clearly not a viable long-term revenue stream. A more efficient way to monetize how we consume music online (and other goods with zero marginal production costs) is not to think about monetizing them in terms of sales, but instead in terms of licenses.

    This is already beginning to happen. Deals like the “Comes With Music” partnership struck between Universal and Nokia last month may feel like “one step forward, two steps back”, but at least we’re finally heading in the right direction. And the fact that all the majors are starting to work with legitimate file-sharing models like iMeem is encouraging.

    The solution we are slowly moving towards is a voluntary collective license for music, which consumers could choose to pay, or not. It needs to work all over the world. National boundaries don’t apply to this kind of information anymore. To pretend they do is as nostalgic a notion as DRM.

    Organizations such as ASCAP or the BMI could fulfill this role. This system wouldn’t be a tax; there would be no cap on the amount of money an artist or label could earn, innovation would not be stifled. Bennet Lincoff wrote a paper this time last year which I believe could be the answer. The EFF is also supportive of a similar solution, which they outlined in a 2004 paper:

    “The concept is simple: the music industry forms a collecting society, which then offers file-sharing music fans the opportunity to “get legit” in exchange for a reasonable regular payment, say $5 per month. So long as they pay, the fans are free to keep doing what they are going to do anyway—share the music they love using whatever software they like on whatever computer platform they prefer—without fear of lawsuits. The money collected gets divided among rights-holders based on the popularity of their music.

    “In exchange, file-sharing music fans will be free to download whatever they like, using whatever software works best for them. The more people share, the more money goes to rights-holders. The more competition in applications, the more rapid the innovation and improvement. The more freedom to fans to publish what they care about, the deeper the catalog.”

    目前的互聯網正處于孩童時期。電子信息通過工業革命留下的銅線廣泛傳播，信息時代即將步入青春期。光纖網絡隨處而見，而互聯網帶給人們的混亂和隱私上的沖擊同樣經歷著一場巨大的考驗。

    媒體的發展進入了多年以來的低谷。但是，短時間之后品牌媒介，工作室以及其他的恐慌的媒體公司老板都不得不停止自己憤怒的行為。到了一個不得不用一些實際可行的辦法來解決隱私問題的時候了。娛樂產業必須成長。

    幾個月前，紐約大學教授Clay Shirky告訴筆者說,DRM(內容數字版權加密保護技術)只能作為一種懷舊的想法了。懷舊是大的娛樂公司對于在數碼時代控制自己發行內容保護的最好的形容詞。大眾傳媒始終戴著玫瑰色的眼鏡來看這種情況，而消費者戴著紅色的眼睛來看這種情況。當盜版能夠使人們第一時間看到自己想看的形式和內容，那么問題就很嚴重了。

    在大多數情況下，人們都不會為偷東西這樣的行為進行道德上的辯解。人們同樣不會為入侵別人隱私以及為保護已經過時，頻臨崩潰的商業模式進行嚴厲的法律保護的行為進行辯解。過去十年，音樂以及影視盜版光盤泛濫的產生是由于人們無法為音像市場提供行之有效的法律保護。隨著帶寬的增加以及下載速度的提升，如果仍然沒有完善的法律體系，那么娛樂業確實危在旦夕。很多人認為面對互聯網的沖擊，娛樂業應該采取新的商業模式去經營，我認為目前在位的經理人的確應該制造一系列新的方案來應對當前的形勢。

    目前為止很多大的娛樂媒體公司以及工作室對法律體系相對理解。對在播客，互聯網以及混音室以及公共演講中使用音樂的消費者進行征稅是不可能，而且成本昂貴的。但是如果你大規模的違法使用音樂，不乏會有一個律師團對你進行制裁。不但沒有解決他們的問題，對公眾下載行為采取過激行為只會加劇娛樂公司的問題。

    假設我們現在認為指望當前的法律體系對于在線音樂和電影來說可以徹底解決盜版問題，那么就相當于我們在假設回收塑料瓶足以解決全球變暖問題一樣天真。

    CD銷量越來越少，一個更有效的辦法去衡量線上下載音樂的價值不是量身訂價而是下載許可證。而目前這一切已經開始施行，上個月環球唱片與諾基亞公司在手機音樂下載上的合作看上去似乎“前進一步，倒退兩步”，然而至少已經開始朝向一個正確的方向邁進了。

    問題是我們始終中間人，然而因為中間人無法很好的完成他們的工作，因此我們決定不再支付給他們錢。

    娛樂行業今后的發展方向只能是共享。不僅是個體用戶將自己的資源共享，這也為很多網站提供了新的機會和賣點。

    娛樂行業目前面臨的沖擊同傳統的盜版形式之間的一條線是由消費者畫出的。唯一可以解決盜版的方式仍然在于消費者。