Never Gonna Do It

Got something you want to do, but don’t think you’re ever going to get to it?  Why not make a note:

http://www.notgettingthingsdone.com/

Global Piracy Day

Hop on eMule or your favorite Torrent site and grab some software, it’s global piracy day!  Wooooh!  Wait … wait, a minute.  No, actually it’s Global Anti-Piracy Day.  Somehow that just doesn’t seem as fun.  It’s kind of like, Global Anti-Drunk Day versus Oktoberfest.  It’s much more fun to gorge yourself on naughty things than to abstain from them.

 

Windows XP Pirated Edition

Oh, I’d prefer people using my creations to pay for them (if I ever make anything worth selling), but I don’t believe in treating them like they’re going to steal it to begin with.  In the short-run it sucks to have things “stolen” like this, in the long-run it’s for the best.  It’s difficult to see past the current horizon, but one day it will happen.  How you treat the popularity of something definitely has an effect on its fans perception of you.  I understand Microsoft can’t simply endorse piracy, but it could spend it’s focus and money elsewhere.

“Piracy hurts innovation!”  I call bullshit.  I haven’t done any surveys or studies, but think about this with common sense and a dash of logic.  First off, “innovation” has toppled “robust” as an entirely meaningless buzzword.  Secondly, pirates are innovating to get around your innovative anti-piracy measures.  Conflict breeds quick progress, a fortunate side-effect of unfortunate events like wars.  People working out of their basements in third world countries have proved profitable in a variety of technological businesses through pure innovation.  It’s everywhere you friggin’ look, and the big companies inevitably market prior inventions as great-new-things.  Rhapsody’s psuedo-anti-DRM “Music Without Limits” commercial comes to mind:  You can now buy music without restrictions!  Thanks, I’ll let eMusic know.

There is even innovation inside monstrous corporations, the issue is whether it ever sees the light of day.  Let me be immodest for a moment and mention that I too have innovated greatly in such an environment and watched in horror as I was completely ignored by the stuffy, top-heavy management.  People are scared of massive change and generally won’t buy into it.  Thus you would hear the lost and loyal followers decry, “It was ahead of its time.”  Most of what consumers get is evolution of a product, a slow process whereby incremental modifications are woven into proven commercial schemes.

Uh, where was I?

Anyway, I think a lot of anti-piracy policies are too draconian and paranoid.  In high school we learned that people tend to believe about others what they know about themselves.  If you’re a back-stabbing jackass then you think everyone else is too … and then, through self-fulfilling prophecy, that’s what they become. Companies who believe pirates are their enemy are soon realizing that’s what they’re fast becoming.