MIT Professor: Video Games, Piracy are Great Equalizers

190w ago - MIT professor Henry Jenkins III has weighed in on the piracy problems that the media faces. He views piracy in two ways, firstly that it is the only way for developing markets to get access to materials and another that it is a rebellious way for consumers to battle against the high prices of original material.

So how does he propose we solve this? Well by reaching a moral economy in which the system of belief is that the transactions are deemed fair and producers must know where to take their materials where it is demanded and how to price it attractively enough not to lose out to piracy.

He asserts if consumers are given a proper access point for the content they want, then they will not resort to piracy. Interesting, but how about adding a third view Mr. Professor - that is that people would rather pay ZERO instead of even $10.

To quote: He sees piracy in two ways: that it is the only way for developing markets to get access to materials and another is that it is a rebellious method for consumers against high prices of original material. To balance, this, Jenkins said that both producers and consumers would have to reach a "moral economy" where the system of belief is that transactions are fair.

Producers must know where to take their materials and where it is demanded, then decide on how to make prices more affordable without losing to piracy. Jenkins believed that users, if given the proper access point for content they want, will buy original instead of resorting to piracy.

Jenkins said that many production companies are looking at different strategies to bring their content to more people and ensuring that these markets do not shift to buying pirated material.

"The younger generation of executives understands the digital age more than their older counterparts. The question now is: how much influence do these younger guys have over the older guys so they could change their strategy? Once they solve that, the rest will be easier."