Antipirates & Pirates - Unite!

In a Swedish radio debate today representatives from Antipiratbyrån (APB), a private organisation funded by the movie/music-industry as well as a representative for Piratbyrån, an organisation that thinks piracy should not be a crime, met to debate piracy.

Neither side had anything new or even remotely intelligent to say. The antipirates said they simply used the law to protect the industries' interests. The pirates wanted the police to solve "real crimes" instead. Both sides can argue all they want, it will solve nothing.

Right now a major part of the Swedish population has access to highspeed broadband. This makes it possible to download music/movies fast and easy, and so far without risk of ever beeing caught. APB has changed that. The risks are still very low - but a debate has started. Is piracy a real crime? Why is piracy so common? The question I raise and will continue to develop in this blog is: "What to do about it - the good way".

There is no doubt in my mind the industry will change a lot the next few years, the only thing that worries me is in what direction the change will occur.

Will the change be towards cheaper music/movies distributed through P2P-networks (legally of course with reasoble payments to the industry) - or will the change be towards an even more controlled reality focused around negative thinking/terms like the reality mentioned in Orwell's 1984?