Quote:
Originally Posted by Quentin
In other words, as a matter of scale, p2p sharing is far more efficient as a means of distributing pirated materials than is NFC.
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More efficient, yes, in the way that you described, of being able to share with many people at any given time to and from any point on the globe. I get that. But I'm sure a lot of people will also say that sharing is sharing no matter how it's done.
I know some younger people (who will remain nameless) who constantly share songs amongst thier wide group of friends. One will grab a new song and then distribute it to dozens of others. Near or far it's still sharing.
And I think the main point is twofold: that at least some of the smart phone companies are mentioning this feature prominently in their advertising, and also that it seems to be acceptable by the masses. So far I haven't heard a peep from anyone from the music industry. Of course it took Napster et al's doing music sharing for a few years before the music industry reacted, this may be a similar case here. The music biz isn't the swiftest tool in the shed when it comes to adapting or dealing with these sorts of things.
Other than the efficiency/proximity argument, is there any other major differences in the two type of sharing?
On the flip side of the argument, it's always been that when someone buys an album (CD, or tape/vinly record etc back in the day) there was nothing stopping them from lending that album out to friends who would often record a copy using dual tape decks, record-to-tape, etc. Music sharing has been going on since music first began being sold I imagine, and certainly people have been raiding each other's collections and making their own recordings since home stereos developed the tape deck w/ record feature. So sharing songs via touching phones, although much swifter and easier, isn't anything different than all that. Is it?
Let's all keep in mind that when Napster came on the scene the music industry was long overdue for a major change. They were comfortably selling CD's for $20 bucks a pop, most of which had one or two worthwhile songs and the rest was filler. Let's face it, they got the swift kick in the pants they deserved at the time. I'm not justifying the downloading that was done on such a massive scale, I'm saying it was inevitable.
Perhaps this person-to-person smart phone sharing is just the next phase of that same kick.