REPORT -- Piracy Substantially Down -- Compelling Paid Alternatives to Blame

Important development reported in today's TechCrunch -- media piracy is substantially (and, I mean substantially) down as a result of compelling paid alternatives (primarily subscription streaming services like Netflix and Pandora).

"Back in the day," I served as President of online music pioneer Musicmatch (ultimately acquired by Yahoo!).  We were amongst the first to offer paid streaming subscriptions (10 years ago!).  I always believed that the best defense against piracy was a good offense -- i.e., beat back pirate sites by offering the best customer/user experiences.  Most were skeptical about this strategy -- and most doubted that subscription services would ever catch on.  After all, consumers want to "own" content, right?

Well, it took a while, but subscription services are now mainstream -- and consumers realize that access to the content they want (and the compelling user experience they need) is tantamount to ownership.  If your content is always available to you -- anytime, anywhere -- why does "ownership" really matter?