Techdirt. Stories filed under "opportunity" Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us Techdirt. Stories filed under "opportunity"http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Sat, 29 Dec 2012 12:00:00 PST Innovation, Optimism And Opportunity: All Coming Together To Make Real Change Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121228/17371721518/innovation-optimism-opportunity-all-coming-together-to-make-real-change.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121228/17371721518/innovation-optimism-opportunity-all-coming-together-to-make-real-change.shtml quite upbeat over all of the amazing and wonderful things going on, if a bit frustrated by the attempts to hold them back. The following year, I talked about the nature of creativity and innovation and all of the examples of people starting to recognize the possibilities that were being enabled, rather than just fighting against them. In 2010, I pointed out that despite the roadblocks, innovation was an unstoppable force, and last year I talked about the fact that people were finally speaking out and making a difference.

This year, I'm going to follow along with that thread, in looking at some of the amazing things that were accomplished in the past year -- things that seemed impossible just a short while ago. I'm using the slot we normally use for the "favorite posts of the week," because in some ways this will be my "favorite posts of the year" post. First up, obviously, was the amazing blackout day last January 18th, in which the internet rose up and said NO! to some awful legislation proposed by Congress: SOPA and PIPA -- leading to millions of people deciding to take action and protest the bill.

To this day, very few people realize how amazing that situation was, and how unlikely a scenario it was just a few months before. This was bipartisan-supported legislation that was seen as a "no-brainer" by most in Congress. Previous attempts at similar types of legislation tended to pass easily with little or no debate. Yes, some of us would make some noise, and maybe the absolute worst bits of a law would get excised (after being put in the bill for that purpose), but a bill like SOPA/PIPA was a foregone conclusion: it was going to be law. Until it wasn't. That is amazing. Last year at this time I was excited about the fact that people had finally come together to speak out, but the bill was still alive and we hadn't fully achieved anything yet. And a few weeks later... we did. It was an amazing moment of real representative democracy in action.

And it didn't stop there. Almost immediately following the SOPA victory, a large group of people suddenly discovered ACTA. ACTA was an ever more foregone conclusion than SOPA. It was basically done -- and all but "signed" in Europe (the US had already signed it). It was a mere formality. And, yet... the success against SOPA energized the opposition, leading to a months-long process that resulted in the EU Parliament loudly rejecting ACTA, and the EU Commission finally giving in just a few weeks ago. Without the success against SOPA, that doesn't happen.

The wider internet spoke up on other occasions as well, including on cybersecurity and on internet freedom. Not all of these campaigns led to victories, but these activities are no longer being ignored by those in power. The wider internet is finding its voice, and that's a good thing -- and something worth being quite excited about.

Of course, it is still early, and there will be setbacks. Politicians and legacy industries have been at this for too long and are too good at "playing the game" to just give up. But, the playing field has shifted notably and the opportunity to speak out and have an impact has increased drastically. At the same time, the tools for such activism have grown and expanded. The ability to use innovative new platforms -- and for those platforms to exist and be useful -- continues to expand.

At the same time, more and more people are engaged and aware. More and more innovators are recognizing that there are new opportunities for disruption. More and more amazing things are within our grasp. Countries are suddenly taking things like copyright and patent reform seriously. There are growing discussions about the power of innovation to help an economy. People are recognizing that new platforms and services are enabling things that used to be impossible (rather than merely updating old things).

It's an exciting time, full of opportunity. There are, as always, threats and those who wish to get in the way of that opportunity, but we're on the cusp of a new era, in which more and more people are able to stand up and speak out and put a stop to those attempts to block innovation and opportunity. And that's incredibly exciting.
Once again, I want to put forth a huge thank you to everyone who makes up the Techdirt community. We've continued to grow and expand quite a bit over the past year, with many new people, new insights, new opinions and great conversations. It's an exciting time to be covering all of the opportunity out there, even if it also means covering those who stand in the way of such opportunity. We're continuing to work hard to do even more for the community in the next year, and we appreciate the insights and support you continue to provide to the site. We started Techdirt as a place to have a discussion on these issues, and that ongoing discussion has continued to be amazing, thought-provoking and wonderful.

I've now been writing Techdirt for more than 15 years, and I wouldn't keep doing it if it wasn't an absolute joy and pleasure every single day -- and much of that is because you come here to read, to comment, to share and to suggest other stories and ideas. It's an amazing experience in and of itself, so thank you.


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]]> keep-it-going http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20121228/17371721518 Fri, 31 Aug 2012 19:39:00 PDT Piracy Is A Cultural Opportunity; Embrace It Zachary Knight http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120825/19545120159/piracy-is-cultural-opportunity-embrace-it.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120825/19545120159/piracy-is-cultural-opportunity-embrace-it.shtml
This is what Daniel Cook from Spry Fox has decided is best. In a reprint of his comments at Gamasutra, Daniel explains that piracy is a fun activity that can be harnessed for good.
Being a 'pirate' was being part of a community. You and your friends shared games like social gaming gifts on Facebook. It didn't cost you anything to copy a game and give it to someone. A game was a social token to chat about, a gesture of kindness to reciprocate. A key takeaway from that time is that copying and sharing vast quantities of digital goods is a deeply fun, social and highly useful activity. This is a new thing, a new behavior in a post-scarcity world.
This is perhaps the most commonly ignored or overlooked aspect of piracy by those who want to end it. For many people, sharing games, movies and music is a fun activity that allows them to share what they love with their friends. Despite what those who seek to stop piracy think, there is very little animosity involved in the activity. It is this love of sharing that can be, as Daniel puts it, hacked for the benefit of the creator.
With shareware, we hacked the copying behavior. People would play the random floppies and some of clever programs would say "Hey! Did you know that you can pay for this?" And a small portion of users did. 'Pirate' and 'consumer' are not mutually exclusive properties. In our capitalist society, almost everyone (with a few notable exceptions) is trained to buy stuff. People who like checking out new software for free are really just another audience of potential consumers.
It was just recently that Ubisoft learned a similar lesson. That the percentage of people who pay for single purchase games is about the same as those that pay in free to play games. If you want people to pay for games, one of the best ways to get them to do so is to let them experience the game first and for free. By giving fans the ability to share the games with others who may not have heard about it on their own, you can expand the pool of potential paying customers.

Unfortunately, there are many creators and gatekeepers out there that want to vilify such behavior. They can't fathom that someone is playing, listening, reading, watching their work without paying for it. They see no benefit in it. This mindset has dangerous outcomes for their paying customers.
It has been a really confusing time for businesses. Some lashed out by labeling consumers as evil, some tried to protect the old ways with DRM. Relationships with customers...who see themselves as just having fun sharing cool stuff...became antagonistic. 30 years. When you raise kids in a warzone, they grow up parroting propaganda. No wonder the conversation is polarized.
It is actions like adding DRM, anti-piracy ads and threatening fines of hundreds of thousands of dollars that will end up costing the entertainment industry more in the long run. As those in the industry seek to threaten and lash out at paying customers, many of those customers will begin to lash out as well. They will end up doing exactly what the industry wants to stop, pirate. For many purchasers of games, it often starts by downloading cracks for games in order to remove restrictive DRM. But there is a lot that can be done to turn the tide.
Detach yourself from the emotions of history. Give up the past forms of what games were. Adapt to the current environment with one eye firmly fixed upon the future.

People copying digital goods as an inherently joyful social activity is an opportunity. It is an artistic opportunity. It is a business opportunity. It is a cultural opportunity.
There are opportunities out there that many creators have found and are enjoying. It can be things like adding a "Cockroach Edition" to your payment options. It can be adding pirate hats to all your characters and putting the game on the Pirate Bay. It could be giving players the ability to set their own price. It could be anything really. By embracing the sharing culture of your fans, you can expand you fan base and increase the potential to make a living.

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]]> sharing-is-fun http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20120825/19545120159 Wed, 8 Aug 2012 17:00:00 PDT DailyDirt: Mars Missions Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100804/14231710499/dailydirt-mars-missions.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100804/14231710499/dailydirt-mars-missions.shtml useful radiation measurements on its journey that will give scientists a better idea of what kind of radiation levels a future manned mission would face on a similar trip to Mars. Here are just a few other interesting Mars-related missions to peruse while Curiosity performs its self-diagnostics before roaming around the surface of Mars. If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100804/14231710499 Thu, 12 Jan 2012 08:41:19 PST Kickstarter Helped Raise Nearly $100 Million In 2011... But There Are No New Business Models? Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20120110/03263517361/kickstarter-helped-raise-nearly-100-million-2011-there-are-no-new-business-models.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20120110/03263517361/kickstarter-helped-raise-nearly-100-million-2011-there-are-no-new-business-models.shtml some stats for 2011, showing that just under $100 million was pledged into projects this year (with approximately $84 million going into projects that were actually funded).

Perhaps most interesting of all? The two areas of the entertainment industry where we repeatedly hear the loudest cries of "there are no new business models!" -- movies and music -- were the two largest areas on Kickstarter. An impressive $32,473,790.40 was pledged for films and video -- leading to 3,284 successful projects, involving 308,541 backers. For music, it was $19,801,685.21 pledged for 3,653 successful projects, involving 260,178 backers. The 2011 numbers roughly tripled the 2010 numbers, so this kind of thing is clearly growing quickly. And, remember, Kickstarter is just one company in this space, which has multiple other companies -- such as IndieGogo and PledgeMusic -- offering similar platforms.

And yet, we're told that there's no way to make money and that fans just want stuff for free? Perhaps it's time to rethink some of those assumptions...

But the really key thing here is exactly what we've said all along: new business models develop. They always do. And part of allowing those new business models to develop is letting new startups, services, platforms and tools develop to meet the needs of the market. Kickstarter clearly meets a need. Things like SOPA and PIPA make it more difficult to start such a company or build such a platform these days (which is why both Kickstarter and IndieGogo have come out strongly against these bills). Let these new services live, and watch new business models succeed (and with them, all sorts of artists and creators).

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]]> just-saying... http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20120110/03263517361 Mon, 5 Dec 2011 14:01:52 PST In A World Where Recorded Music 'No Longer Has Monetary Value,' The Artist Is King Tim Cushing http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111116/10283516791/world-where-recorded-music-no-longer-has-monetary-value-artist-is-king.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111116/10283516791/world-where-recorded-music-no-longer-has-monetary-value-artist-is-king.shtml enthusiasm for utilizing "all technologies" to connect with fans (including using "pirate sites" for the distribution of the Flaming Lips' music) as well as Bas Grasmayer's terrific post "Why The Internet Has Been Awesome For Both Musical Artists And Fans."

With the discussion of SOPA still ongoing, a lot is being made of how bad things are right now for content creators. But are they? Or is it just a matter of perspective?

Chuck Klosterman, in his very entertaining review of Lou Reed/Metallica's new album "Lulu," makes this observation:
As a rule, we're always supposed to applaud the collapse of the record industry. We are supposed to feel good about the democratization of music and the limitless palette upon which artists can now operate. But that collapse is why Lulu exists. If we still lived in the radio prison of 1992, do you think Metallica would purposefully release an album that no one wants? No way. Cliff Burnstein from Q Prime Management would listen to their various ideas, stroke his white beard, and deliver the following 45-second pep talk: "OK, great. Love these concepts. Your allusion to Basquiat's middle period was very apt, Lars. Incisive! But here's our situation. If you guys spend two months writing superfast Diamond Head songs about nuclear winter and shape-shifting, we can earn $752 million in 18 months, plus merchandizing. That's option A. The alternative is that you can make a ponderous, quasi-ironic art record about 'the lexicon of hate' that will outrage the Village Voice and mildly impress Laurie Anderson. Your call." Ten minutes later, Bob Rock would be parking his Lexus at the studio...

But if the fundamental goal of Metallica is to make good music, it seems like trying to get rich while doing so dramatically improves their creative process. The constraints of late capitalism really work for them; they're extraordinarily adept at making electrifying heavy rock that's designed to generate revenue. The reason Lulu is so terrible is because the people making this music clearly don't care if anyone else enjoys it. Now, here again - if viewed in a vacuum - that sentiment is admirable and important. But we don't live in a vacuum. We live on Earth. And that means we have to accept the real-life consequences of a culture in which recorded music no longer has monetary value, and one of those consequences is Lulu.
To be fair, Klosterman is stating this as a conclusion, rather than an indictment. There's an underlying tone of accusation there, but I don't think that his overall point is to decry file sharing as ruining music, but rather pointing out that an album like this could only be made in this day and age.

Essentially, this ("the democratization of music and the limitless palette upon which artists can now operate") becomes a situation that artists can view as either half empty or half full. When there's nothing to gain, why even bother? Conversely, when there's nothing to lose, why not take risks? When faced with piracy, you can either handle the challenge like Eileen Siedler (poster girl for Why The DMCA Does Not Work), whose glass will be eternally half empty or you can do what Metallica and others did and view it as the perfect climate for experimentation. As frustrating as it is to see your efforts spread all over the web without your consent or control, it's an exercise in futility to expend your energy attempting to snuff out every last flame of infringement. Wouldn't that time and energy be put to better use by creating and exploring options?

It's happening all over. Drake tweeting amiably about an album leak. The Flaming Lips doing everything from recording a 24-hour song (and embedding it in a skull) to tossing out rough cuts and half-formed ideas onto file sharing sites. Jack White teaming up with the Insane Clown Posse. Chino Moreno of the Deftones releasing an album of witch house music (and giving it away). Bjork putting out an album-as-app for the iPhone and inviting pirates to make it cross-platform. DJ Screw acolyte and obliteration-as-remix artist Nattymari using Youtube as his "label," having uploaded nearly 200 videos/tracks to date. He claims it pays him the same amount a label would: "nullset." It also gives him a free platform to get his stuff out there which he has leveraged into a rather high profile Kreashawn mixtape for influential NYC music/fashion blog, Mishka Bloglin. When you've got restlessly creative people itching for release, the normal time frame of label day and date release schedules will never be fast enough.

Need more examples? Take a look at Bradford Cox. Not only is he the founding member of Deerhunter, but he continues to produce quality music under the name Atlas Sound, his "bedroom production" project. Cox moves too fast for Sony, who accidentally took Cox's freely released music down from his account at Mediafire. Chillwave artist Neon Indian sells scarcity by teaming up with Bleep Labs to offer a deluxe edition of his latest album, bundled with its Pico Pasa mini synth. Not only that, but he takes the time to shoot a bizarrely hilarious informercial for the product. Other artists are finding that fans still want physical items, even if it's just a physical piece of music they could acquire for next to nothing (or nothing itself) somewhere else. Vinyl sales are up. Cassettes, of all things, continue to make a comeback. All of these are efforts that would have been unimaginable in the past when the labels decided your next moves and kept a constant eye on the bottom line.

Many other success stories utilizing technology and non-conventional methods have been featured here at Techdirt. Still, the complaints roll in. The most common argument is that this particular method "won't work for everybody" or "won't scale." This is true. Each content creator will likely have to try out many methods before finding one that works for them. Getting lost in the chaos of the internet is very easy if you can't command attention, and yes, that means solutions won't scale.

But looking back at the golden years of the recording industry, their solution didn't scale either. Lost in this nostalgic view is the fact that the old method of "sign-with-label, make-record, sell-record" didn't scale either. For every artist that made it big with a major label, many, many more ended up hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt with no control over any of their recorded output. With royalties slowly being applied to their outstanding balances, these bands had to tour and sell merchandise to make money. Sound familiar?

With labels investing less and less in their artists, it's up to the artists to creatively use all the tools at their disposal to get their music into people's heads and their names on people's lips. Not every band or artist has the kind of money that Metallica has, or the clout, but then again, most smaller bands/artists don't have to keep sweatered therapists on the payroll or pay for a Lou Reed-sized drug habit. Yes, the odds are tough and the signal-to-noise ratio completely out of whack, but there has never been a time in history where musicians had the opportunities than they have today.

There are so many tools available now for speedy (and cheap) distribution. Bittorrent. Digital lockers. Cloud services. Bandcamp. Tunecore. Soundcloud. Youtube. Beatport. Spotify. Rdio. Hell, even turntable.fm has been known to host album debuts. If you're looking to get your music into people's ears, the possibilities are endless. A million bloggers, from small-time writers with a few hundred followers to 800-lb. gorillas like, well, Gorilla vs. Bear and Pitchfork are dying to get their hands on new music.

Keeping contact with your fans has never been easier or more instantaneous. Webcasts, twitter, Facebook, Google+ and countless other social media platforms and tools allow artists to enjoy actual conversations with their fans, which is a huge step up from stapling up flyers and hoping for the best.

If the complaints are to be believed, the ones that state that piracy and free/cheap digital goods are killing the creative industries, anyone on the outside of the argument would look around the internet and have a very hard time believing that. The playing field, especially for recording artists, is the levelest it's ever been. The real question is, as you face the "wild west" of the internet: Are you looking at how much you have to gain? Or are you just looking to minimize your losses?

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]]> if-you've-got-nothing-to-lose,-what's-stopping-you? http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20111116/10283516791 Thu, 31 Dec 2009 19:39:00 PST Creativity, Innovation And Happiness Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20091231/0417397561.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20091231/0417397561.shtml On Staying Happy. It seems, at time, that people think that I am filled with anger or rage, because of all the annoying or "bad" stories that show up here all the time. Of course, for folks who know me, this is pretty funny. I'm pretty laid back and quite happy and content for the most part -- which was the point of last year's post.

This year, for my final post of the year, I wanted to take that a step further, and point out how in awe I am of the continued amazing creativity we've been seeing. In just the last year alone, we've seen and written about so many incredible stories of creativity and innovation in a sea of negative from those who insist that it can't be done. We've heard that music and movies are "dying" because of piracy, even as we've seen incredible new music and movies being created by people who are embracing new and innovative business models.

We've seen things like how Amanda Palmer connected with her fans and gave them a reason to buy, allowing her to create some fantastic new music. We've seen how a guy in Israel by the name of Kutiman, that no one had ever heard of probably broke all sorts of copyright laws to create create an amazing album (one of my favorites of the year). We've seen how Nina Paley went from being stifled by copyright to embracing alternatives and how she's used that to build a different kind of business model. We've seen how the business models we talk about are suddenly being applied widely to things like books, photography and even everyday objects. It's been an incredible year for amazing creativity both in content creation and in business models.

As a part of that, I've personally been blown away at the reception I've received (sometimes from initially "hostile" audiences) when I've been granted the opportunity to go out and present and discuss these business models and how they're working.

Finally, as a result of all this, we've had a lot of fun running our own experiments, from which we've learned a ton and were able to work with some amazing and talented partners and content creators. Seeing all this happen even as the stories (without any evidence) of doom and gloom get louder and louder from those who aren't willing to embrace change is even more exciting and encouraging. The pace with which these ideas are being adopted (and adapted) is breathtaking and exciting. We're looking forward to the pace of this activity to only increase in 2010, and we've got a bunch of surprises in store as we look to not only continue discussing these concepts but to really help more people join in the fun as well.
Thanks to everyone here for making it yet another fun year. We've been at this for over a dozen years now, and each year is more exciting than the previous one -- in large part due to the amazing community of folks who spend at least some of their free time here. We hope that you had a wonderful and exciting year as well, and look forward to more opportunities in 2010...


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]]> thanks-to-everyone http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20091231/0417397561 Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:47:09 PDT Instead Of Nasty Lawsuit Against Counterfeiter... Why Not Look At Partnership Opportunities? Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090709/0225295496.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090709/0225295496.shtml make use of his manufacturing capabilities, and the two teamed up... even to the point of eventually getting married to each other. Obviously, that's a pretty extreme example, but the key point is worth repeating: sometimes the better solution is not to freak out and sue over infringement, but to see if that infringement can be used to your advantage.

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]]> not-everything-needs-a-lawsuit http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20090709/0225295496