P2P File Sharing Ruining Physical Piracy Business

TorrentFreak has a short post up talking with a former physical data pirate, who sold his wares in flea markets and made buckets of money in the 90s. By the end of the last decade, his money flow had dried up, and he places the blame squarely on the shoulders of P2P file sharing. "Tony is very clear about why his rags to riches story has gone back to rags again. 'File-sharing, P2P - call it what you like. When you asked a customer why he wasn't buying anything, 9 times out of 10 it was BitTorrent this, LimeWire that ...' P2P is a very powerful machine and although Tony could see that his operation was feeling its effects, he admits that he sat back and did nothing about it and consequently, his business has paid the ultimate price. Other industries affected by P2P should take note: Don't be a Tony. Overhaul your business model. Quickly." One would imagine overseas media sellers will have similar issues, as P2P networks become more common outside of the Western world.

Comments

$500 million

[DrSkwid]

Fuck Pirates of The Carribean

Fuck all you $10 million a movie "stars"

Re:I think there is another morale to this story

[19thNervousBreakdown]

Because he was nigger rich. (Yeah, yeah, mod me down, it's just an expression.)

It's the same thing you'll see with drug dealers. When they get out of the game, for whatever reason, they leave with nothing. I don't think such high-risk endeavors are compatible with the mindset that puts money in the bank and/or goes to college.

What really drives it home is that this guy got out clean. He didn't get busted, fined, thrown in jail--nothing. He could have put just $500 a week away and even if he only did that for two years have over $50k in the bank--more than enough to get started on a lot of legitimate businesses.