2007.02.26
Bad Business Plans
16.19.04 - Mark
The Bittorrent store is doomed to fail. Their business model is based on having knowledgeable geeks and power users using crippled software, to pay to have their computers and internet connections used to support the store's network, while renting mainstream content that in addition to being low quality has been wrapped in stringent DRM forcing you to use one computer and forbids you from using portable devices.
Meanwhile their main competition is themselves, by having millions of high quaility, DRM-free files available on the same network at no cost, and which have the added benefit of being playable on any sufficiently modern media device.
Looking at the NYT article, they claim a better user experience, but I can't see myself or my bittorrent aware brother using the official site over TorrentSpy or The Pirate Bay and while I have no problem forking over cash, bandwidth, or even watching advertisements to compensate for my downloads I'm not accepting DRMed files. I commonly download files on a linux box and watch videos on one of a number of other devices, from a video iPod to streaming it across the network and viewing it on a laptop connected to the TV.
I can't help but think that this is nothing but an attempt to keep a perfectly legal tool and its creators from being sued by naive MPAA/RIAA lawyers.
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