It’s easy to assume that every unpaid copy is a lost sale, but that’s not how it works in real life. In practice, many techniques for reducing piracy also reduce sales. DRM removes value from the legal copy, thus making the pirated copy worth *more* to the end user. The trick is to make the legal sale more valuable, such as making it more convenient than piracy. The Apple iTunes store is a good example; you can pirate everything there, but iTunes is easier and the cost is reasonable.

Back in the day, I used to rent every Private videotape as soon as they came out. The lengthy multi-language copyright warning was annoying, but could be skipped over. When DVDs replaced tapes, the warning and ads for other videos could no longer be skipped, due to misguided design features included in the DVD standard. I timed one DVD and found that it was 8 minutes before I could watch the video I had paid for. I’ve never rented any videos from Private since that day. I like their content, but I won’t reward companies that treat customers that way.

Don’t waste your time thinking about pirates, invest your time on paying customers. As author/activist Cory Doctorow advises authors, your biggest problem isn’t piracy, it’s obscurity. I amazed that companies still release content that doesn’t clearly identify a website or the title of the release.

Commercial piracy is a different story, and one you cover well.