TechAmok

[topicmaker]

Piracy, it seems, is about more than price. That's one of the
surprising discoveries to come out of

an experiment by the British band Radiohead last week. On Thursday, the
group made its latest album, In Rainbows,
available for direct
downloading from the Web at an unusual price: whatever fans feel like
paying. Down...read more

[spidey]

This crap reads like a FUD campaign.

The number of "pirated" copies in circulation of In Rainbow as approved of by you or me is irrelevant, only Radiohead's opinion on it matters. And being that they allow you to pay zero for it I assume that they want you, the consumer, to pay what you actually think it's worth. Where you got it from then becomes irrelevant.

Further on the almost blatantly essential question to ask have been overlooked. How many sales have they made and how much money did they make? When we get to compare those figures with the traditional way of sales and distribution, only then, will we know if this has been a (financial) success or not.

I myself have paid for In Rainbows, it was worth £5 to me, with the total landing on £5.45 with handling. No, I am not happy with 160kbit mp3's and will definitely fish up a higher quality rip whenever I stumble across it.

Finally, there will always be pirates around, even when things are "free", for really what use is "free" when you do not or can not meet the requirements for it or when "free" comes with a choking collar.