Thursday, October 6, 2011

Cyber life

Today news spreading all over the world is dead of Steve Jobs. Visionary  of current mobile business, and not only phones but also tablets and overall way we look on communication between people. Who, beside him and few other people that now create things, would have imagine that we will all have phones in our pockets, able to make photos, calculate complicated things faster than space shuttles and able to surf the invisible network. We live in fast pacing world, going faster and faster with every minute - so lets stop for a moment and look around.

Stop.


After the minute, the only moment you are really able to stop, let's move forward. The creation of iPhone, iPod and other similar devices created something that not all were ready for. The steady flow of information - every kind of information - data, books, movies, music and ideas. The laws are still in the age of big industries and machines needed to copy music on vinyl or tape or lately CD, the same with movies, the printing industry is even bigger, all going into the physical form that now is digitalized. And you suddenly lost control over everything. Now everything is available with just a click of a mouse... or a finger on screen. All in hands reach. The laws we have are too old, not elastic enough to manage the furious speed the world is going at.

When I was a child and got my first computer and old Atari with an external floppy 5,25" drive and tape recorder the only way to buy anything for it was to go to "legal-pirate" shop and request a copy. You had to buy your own floppy disks and ask the salesman to copy them for you. Was it illegal? I have no idea, for me it was legal as I got to a shop and paid for the software, but looking back I think it was the craziest way of doing business. In the world without strict laws about computer programs it was the only way to get it. In that moment you, as a law abiding citizen, are probably indignant, how dare we. Well we didn't have any other option. It was proven again and again, what is forbidden is most appealing.

The so called "piracy" problem has many roots and is complex situation. On one side the part of the problem is of course money we always look for ways to pay less for something we need, and business looks for ways to make us pay more. On the other side there are lots of people that do things for free, tell us take it you don't have to pay a dime for it, but if you think it's worth something then here pay as much as you want, and it also works.

I've took a moment today to take a closer look on a store with ebooks and the first thing that got my attention was - I can't copy the file somewhere else, I can't borrow the book to my friend (okay in theory I can assign up to fixed number of devices to my virtual ID, whatever solution...). Why? I buy a printer book and I read it and then borrow to my friends, whatever there are three, four or twenty of them. I want to do the same with my ebook, and what when I have an issue with my devices, change my mobile phone every three months, and my tablet every six one, not mentioning I'm using all together over ten electronic devices that allow me to read my ebooks. What then? I want to have it on every one of them, why can't I? The same with music, I want to move it around, I want to give my friend the CD to listen to... and again I'm blocked. No wonder there are pirates all around the world, even when money stops to be the issue - the issue (for me at least, the main issue) is the way I can manage my own digital library, or rather that I can't do it with all the fixes and forbidden ways of use. So I buy CDs when I really like the artist, and printed books cos I can borrow them to everyone and most important they don't run out of batteries... that's why I buy the DVD of my favorite series. I was happy to hear iTunes opened the Polish version of their shop... but still the prices are not for our pockets, the DRM file security will not allow me to borrow my favorite album to my friends...

This world is about sharing, so why oh why everyone is doing everything to stop it?

Ah yes it's all about money... as always...


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