Tim O'Reilly responds to Michael Eisner's characterization of the technology industry as a bunch of theives.
According to the NY Times story, Michael Eisner of Disney says that he doubts that "any new business model could compete with digital copies that were free, flawless, and accessible from the comfort of his prospective customers' living rooms." And Peter Chernin, president of the News Corporation reportedly suggested that matters might be different if the tables were turned. "Let's say I decide to broadcast on my network the code for how to make Intel chips or Microsoft software," he said. "I think they'd find a way to stop it."
These entertainment and publishing industry executives are either being disingenuous or are ignorant of both technology and history. The software industry faces exactly the same conditions that the entertainment industry fears will destroy its markets. Software is digital, easily and perfectly copyable, and pirated copies are in fact available through a variety of illicit channels, but that hasn't kept companies like Microsoft from going on to become among the largest and most successful in the world. What's more, copy protection was widely explored by software companies in the 1980's, and what they learned was that consumers avoided copy-protected products. Consumer behavior gave marketplace advantage to companies that didn't use copy protection, and after a relatively short time, the industry got over its fears and got back to offering products that people were glad to pay for.
