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 But there isn’t a moral defense for invading people’s privacy and imposing draconian laws to protect outdated, crumbling business models either.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.”

    目前的互联网正处于孩童时期。电子信息通过工业革命留下的铜线广泛传播，信息时代即将步入青春期。光纤网络随处而见，而互联网带给人们的混乱和隐私上的冲击同样经历着一场巨大的考验。

    媒体的发展进入了多年以来的低谷。但是，短时间之后品牌媒介，工作室以及其他的恐慌的媒体公司老板都不得不停止自己愤怒的行为。到了一个不得不用一些实际可行的办法来解决隐私问题的时候了。娱乐产业必须成长。

    几个月前，纽约大学教授Clay Shirky告诉笔者说,DRM(内容数字版权加密保护技术)只能作为一种怀旧的想法了。怀旧是大的娱乐公司对于在数码时代控制自己发行内容保护的最好的形容词。大众传媒始终戴着玫瑰色的眼镜来看这种情况，而消费者戴着红色的眼睛来看这种情况。当盗版能够使人们第一时间看到自己想看的形式和内容，那么问题就很严重了。

    在大多数情况下，人们都不会为偷东西这样的行为进行道德上的辩解。人们同样不会为入侵别人隐私以及为保护已经过时，频临崩溃的商业模式进行严厉的法律保护的行为进行辩解。过去十年，音乐以及影视盗版光盘泛滥的产生是由于人们无法为音像市场提供行之有效的法律保护。随着带宽的增加以及下载速度的提升，如果仍然没有完善的法律体系，那么娱乐业确实危在旦夕。很多人认为面对互联网的冲击，娱乐业应该采取新的商业模式去经营，我认为目前在位的经理人的确应该制造一系列新的方案来应对当前的形势。

    目前为止很多大的娱乐媒体公司以及工作室对法律体系相对理解。对在播客，互联网以及混音室以及公共演讲中使用音乐的消费者进行征税是不可能，而且成本昂贵的。但是如果你大规模的违法使用音乐，不乏会有一个律师团对你进行制裁。不但没有解决他们的问题，对公众下载行为采取过激行为只会加剧娱乐公司的问题。

    假设我们现在认为指望当前的法律体系对于在线音乐和电影来说可以彻底解决盗版问题，那么就相当于我们在假设回收塑料瓶足以解决全球变暖问题一样天真。

    CD销量越来越少，一个更有效的办法去衡量线上下载音乐的价值不是量身订价而是下载许可证。而目前这一切已经开始施行，上个月环球唱片与诺基亚公司在手机音乐下载上的合作看上去似乎“前进一步，倒退两步”，然而至少已经开始朝向一个正确的方向迈进了。

    问题是我们始终中间人，然而因为中间人无法很好的完成他们的工作，因此我们决定不再支付给他们钱。

    娱乐行业今后的发展方向只能是共享。不仅是个体用户将自己的资源共享，这也为很多网站提供了新的机会和卖点。

    娱乐行业目前面临的冲击同传统的盗版形式之间的一条线是由消费者画出的。唯一可以解决盗版的方式仍然在于消费者。