According to Karen Croxson, digital piracy may help companies. As a new-media minded person working in a traditionally old-media world I am a little conflicted here. I am coming around to Chris Anderson’s Free mantra, and I absolutely believe my industry had better move a hell of a lot faster to adapt to the digital changes in the market. But I am having a bit of trouble coming to terms with Ms. Croxson’s justification as to why piracy is ok.

Ms Croxson points out that piracy poses a threat to sales only when those who otherwise would buy become tempted instead to copy. In any market there are some who value the product but never would buy. Their piracy cannot harm the seller.

Yes, but how do you tell them apart? Do you think that people download content illegally because they don’t value it? They download it because it’s free, and because they value it. Of course they say they would never buy it because it justifies their stealing it, and because they don’t have to buy it – it’s available on the P2P network.

Quite the opposite: because, like any consumer, a pirate will talk to others about product experiences, copying which does not displace sales can actually help business.

Copying does not displace sales? So my friend tells me he can’t wait to get the Band X CD this weekend, and I just burn him a copy of mine. No sales lost?

Consumer `buzz’ is hugely important for sales success, studies have shown, and piracy drives up buzz without the need for extra marketing.

Oh, it’s about buzz. So, if I waltz down to Best Buy and shoplift a copy of the new Rick Ross CD (because I would never buy it) but tell my friends about it, then I have justified my stealing of the CD? And if I walk out of Barnes and Noble with a copy of Oprah’s latest pick tucked under my coat, but tell my Mom about it every thing’s ok?

Not even the pirates believe this. Just take a look at the comments on this topic over at Torrent Freak. For example:

I’m not gonna lie, I mostly download album and film cuz i’m broke and can’t buy all the stuff that i want.

or

this article makes me feel bad,really bad, i only download stuff i WANT to use,movies i WANT to watch,books i WANT to read,for free

I think that free content definitely has a place in our industry. I think we need to cast off old ways of thinking, and create new products and new business models in order to remain valid in the new media economy. I even think that seeding content via P2P for promotional purposes is an acceptable strategy. We are looking at Social DRM as a replacement for current technologies. We are taking steps (slowly) in the right direction here, but in these cases it is the intent of the content owners to do these things.

But don’t try and justify stealing by telling me that it’s good for my business.

Admittedly I am biased here, but at the same time I am one of the outspoken ones in my company when it comes to adapting to the changing landscape. What do you think? Am I way off base here?

(Photo credit Nick Humphries)

So, what are Wrox Blox?

• DRM-free
• PDF format
• Bite-sized (generally 20-40 pages)
• Faster to market than traditional books
• Introductory priced at only $3.99 US

The initial roll out consists of 4 titles, with many more in the works to be available shortly. Beginning today you can purchase and instantly download:

• iPhone and iPod touch Programming : Handling Touch Interactions and Events for Mobile Safari
• Silverlight 1.0 Animation
• Leveraging LINQ in ASP.NET 3.5 Projects
• Building a Photo Gallery with Adobe AIR

Hopefully we have responded to customer needs with a great new product. What do you think? Is this type of publishing the right direction? How can we improve Wrox Blox?

Yesterday I started writing a post outlining my reasoning for proclaiming the iPod touch as the ideal e-book platform, and as I prepared to finish the piece last night I see the very smart Kassia Krozser at the Booksquare blog has beaten me to the punch with a post entitled Apple Saves the Publishing Industry.

So, go ahead and read her thoughts on the matter.  Go ahead, I won’t be offended – she’s right after all.

When will we stop trying to create a dedicated e-book reader and simply adopt our content to devices consumers already want and use?  This may be a real opportunity for content creators to build products for a “for real” device.  Granted, the storage is on the small side, but its a first generation product and that is sure to improve.

What do you think?  Can adoption of a product like the new iPod touch create a new content channel?

Aside from the fact that its always insightful to get valuable feedback from programmers on tech books, there were a couple of comments that touched on some e-content issues that I was especially interested in.

I don’t really understand why anyone would even want to buy a programming book. No way to run the example code (without finding it online or on some attached CD/DVD), no way to copy and paste, no way to click a link to a different topic, the trusty web browser with Google bookmarked to look up terms or expressions you don’t know is far away. It’s like living in the dark ages again.

to which Jeff Atwood responded,

I totally agree– the idea that books are competing with other books is an illusion. Books are competing with the web. And the Adam Nathan book does a surprisingly good job of it.

Don’t we know it Jeff…

But the first point it begs the question, “What if books  could do those things?”  Ignore for the moment the state of e-book readers and maybe just think about using a programming book on a PC or Mac, alongside the programming tool of your choice.  What features would you want?  Seriously, the sky’s the limit.  Let’s design the ultimate e-content product for programmers – go ahead, pitch in.

Better yet, lets talk not just about programming books (because I am obviously interested in that) but lets talk about other books as well.  Whats the killer ebook app?

(photo courtesy jopemoro)