Miramax CEO says piracy isn’t as much a danger as digital monopolies

If you listen to the garbage spewed forth by industry trade groups like the MPAA and the RIAA you would think that the music and movie industry is on the verge of collapse because of those nasty dirty pirates who spend their days, and nights, stealing other peoples work.

So it is interesting, and refreshing, to here people like Mike Lang, CEO of Miramax, and Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos suggest that piracy isn’t really that much of an issue, especially if you give people an easy to buy and watch, or listen to, their digital content.

Max Lang suggested in a recent keynote speech at the MIPCOM conference that people really don’t want to be pirates as long as they can easily get what they want. For Miramax piracy has never been that big of an issue but more of making sure the customer can get their content without jumping through hoops. As well Lang disputed that the main problem for the music industry was piracy but rather the rise of digital monopolies.

Another problem, related to the pricing issue, is the emergence of digital monopolies such as the one Apple has in the digital music business. This threatens the music industry more than piracy, Miramax’s CEO suggested.

“Apple is the strongest company in the music industry because there was not enough competition, and still to this day there is not enough competition. As an industry it can’t then influence, packaging, merchandising – all the things that are vital,” Lang said.

via TorrentFreak

As Ted Sarandos said in his keynote – “when consumers tell you what they want, give it to them. Figure out a way to give it to them because if you don’t they’ll figure out a way to get it.

Got to admit that it was interesting hearing this kind of talk from some industry big-wigs. Too bad the rest of the industry doesn’t clue in.