OMG. Reading this mornings newspaper, I get the same vibe as when I hear about bullying in schoolyards, or when I listen to Philip Zimbardo talking about evil at TED.com – “if we attack in a group, we all get away with it”.
Earbooks, Storyside, Piratförlaget, Bonnier Audio, and Norstedts have decided to take advantage of the new and highly controversial (79% of young men are against, and half of the general population) IPRED-law to attack, in formation, ordinary people downloading audio books from file sharing sites. This is NOT smart.
Sure, one of them could attack an individual and say that this is what they believe in and have some sort of pseudo-discussion about rights of artists. They could make it part of their identity and stand by it. I don’t believe in it, but at least it would feel honest and perhaps even a little courageous. But when hiding behind each others backs, effecively saying that they’re a little bit ashamed, it’s absolutely devestating for their brands.
On top of it all, Bonnier has a brand new R&D-department working to take Bonnier into the future. Suddenly this sounds less than convincing. If putting the numbers on the board of what kind of money they MIGHT make off of this (will it even be a +sign in front of that number?) against the cost of the damage they’re doing to their brand, and multiply that number over the medium or long term, this will seem like the worst decision in a long time. It’s very unfortunate.
Compare this to what Viasat are doing, leveraging this law to show off their brand as progressive and intelligent.
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