Another modest proposalEarlier this year, Macmillan president Brian Napack outlined a seven-point plan to “stop piracy”. At the time, I wrote a brief post suggesting that one of the seven points, “Build a viable consumer marketplace”, should be given greater prominence in the company’s call to action around instances of digital piracy. I also suggested that Macmillan gather data on what helps and hurts paid content sales. Regular readers of our work know this is a common refrain with respect to our thoughts on piracy: we don’t know what we don’t know. So it was more than a little disappointing to read Macmillan’s recent posting for a new position, ”Director, Digital Piracy”. The job description is long on enforcement and wholly silent on viable consumer marketplaces or data collection to establish the impact of piracy on paid content sales. Although it’s just one company, and it’s just one job, the omissions parallel the received wisdom that Authors Guild president Scott Turow has been presenting in his first few months in office. Like the AG, Macmillan could use its leadership position to sponsor research, improve understanding and target enforcement where the data shows that it makes sense. Instead, it wants to hire an MBA with publishing experience whose brief will include “Review print, production and distribution process to eliminate file leakage, counterfeiting and re-importation activities” (interpretation: we’ve traced the source of piracy, and it’s coming from inside the house). The business school I attended spent a lot of time teaching us newbies that decisions made without data are better labeled ”guesswork”. Let’s hope the newer MBAs who might land this job learned the same thing. CommentsGlad I’m not the only one who took the job announcement that way. I gave a little thought to actually applying thinking maybe, just maybe, if I got on the inside I could have a little impact on how the company views the digital sphere. Posted by Bradley Robb on 06/18 at 02:09 PM
I’d counsel giving it a go. Macmillan is an important player in the trade and education spaces, and their positions resonate. That’s why I wish they’d take a more balanced approach. Posted by Brian O'Leary on 06/18 at 05:45 PM
This is a position statement:
If Macmillan is following the MPAA model (looks that way to me) then the question of success is already answered. The ‘Screener’ DVD is source of many unauthorized copies; that is pretty inside to me. I don’t think Macmillan will get a success rate any better than what exists now. Once out of said ‘Director of ..’ own hand human nature takes over. Don’t know what the real result will be but history repeats itself too often.
The words “piracy” and “misappropriation” defined (an easy read):
I thank techdirt.com [twitter @techdirt] for pointing out the PDF. Posted by fairuse on 06/23 at 01:36 PM
Page 1 of 1 pages
Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.
|
Enjoy this post? Share it with others.