Let me start off with this my thoughts on P2P. While I think that P2P is a great and wonderful means of getting music and other types of files (illegal or not) I don't think that it's the primary source of free copyrighted material.
I for one don't like to pay upwards of 16.00$USD for every new CD that comes to the market. I trade quite often with my friends and aquire entire cd cases full of CD's just from ripping music onto my hard drive. It's very rare that I use P2P programs for anything other than extremely hard to find music and singles which are freely played on the radio.
Most of the people I know are the same way. I don't feel that putting a dent in P2P by taking away unlimited broadband access is going to do much for the anti-priracy movement.
NOTE: I do pay for CD's just not every new cd I get is an original copy, I don't have the cash to support habits like that.
In addition to that even if SOME broadband companies try tiered pricing then you are still going to have quite a few that aren't doing it. Also you have to throw in all those thousands of privatly owned pipes which will continue to pump and provide thousands of gigabytes worth of music and files.
Another thing to think about is the public reaction raised/tiered prices. Okay, so they cap my bandwidth, I may find that it's cheaper and more cost effective to just go back to dial up. A lot of users get broadband for P2P and surfing the internet. I do a lot of web development and development/IT surfing. I don't necessarily need broadband and I know there are a lot of other people out there like that. With tiered pricing and capped transfers it's going to become more viable to go out and get one or two dial up connections without any limitations (remember shotgun modems?) and just put up with slower access and less pressure on the pocket book.
How much money will broadband companies lose then? How many customers will mutiny and go back to their older but unrestricted dial ups?
I feel the only option left to broadband companies is to find a way to make their current model work. Find government or other outside support, find ways to sell their product more effectively, and fix prices so that profits can be made without insane limitations being put on the users. If they can't accomplish any of this I forsee a sharp downward slide that won't be stopped.
If loss of profit means cutting users off even more, then the users will leave, the more users leave the more your profit continues to drop.
It's a viscious spin that's going to get out of control. I'm sure you all know economics well enough to see the trend that could start forming.
I apologize for any mispellings, typos, or isses concerning grammar. I strive to get my point across, not to nit-pick through my posts and weed out mistakes.
Slashdot Mirror
*cough* lawsuits out the yang *cough*
Let me start off with this my thoughts on P2P. While I think that P2P is a great and wonderful means of getting music and other types of files (illegal or not) I don't think that it's the primary source of free copyrighted material.
I for one don't like to pay upwards of 16.00$USD for every new CD that comes to the market. I trade quite often with my friends and aquire entire cd cases full of CD's just from ripping music onto my hard drive. It's very rare that I use P2P programs for anything other than extremely hard to find music and singles which are freely played on the radio.
Most of the people I know are the same way. I don't feel that putting a dent in P2P by taking away unlimited broadband access is going to do much for the anti-priracy movement.
NOTE: I do pay for CD's just not every new cd I get is an original copy, I don't have the cash to support habits like that.
In addition to that even if SOME broadband companies try tiered pricing then you are still going to have quite a few that aren't doing it. Also you have to throw in all those thousands of privatly owned pipes which will continue to pump and provide thousands of gigabytes worth of music and files.
Another thing to think about is the public reaction raised/tiered prices. Okay, so they cap my bandwidth, I may find that it's cheaper and more cost effective to just go back to dial up. A lot of users get broadband for P2P and surfing the internet. I do a lot of web development and development/IT surfing. I don't necessarily need broadband and I know there are a lot of other people out there like that. With tiered pricing and capped transfers it's going to become more viable to go out and get one or two dial up connections without any limitations (remember shotgun modems?) and just put up with slower access and less pressure on the pocket book.
How much money will broadband companies lose then? How many customers will mutiny and go back to their older but unrestricted dial ups?
I feel the only option left to broadband companies is to find a way to make their current model work. Find government or other outside support, find ways to sell their product more effectively, and fix prices so that profits can be made without insane limitations being put on the users. If they can't accomplish any of this I forsee a sharp downward slide that won't be stopped.
If loss of profit means cutting users off even more, then the users will leave, the more users leave the more your profit continues to drop.
It's a viscious spin that's going to get out of control. I'm sure you all know economics well enough to see the trend that could start forming.
I apologize for any mispellings, typos, or isses concerning grammar. I strive to get my point across, not to nit-pick through my posts and weed out mistakes.