MegaUpload’s Founder Explained How Piracy Works

Kim Dotcom has posted a 5-step list on his Tweeter account explaining the common reasons why people pirate. It is addressed to rights owners and lobbyists to let them better understand piracy phenomenon.




Dotcom’s first advice says “Create great stuff“. That’s an important message for content creators believing that they should get paid for their work despite the questionable quality of their labor. Kim points out that creating great content is a challenge, and receiving payment for your work is to be earned.

Another important step, says Dotcom, is make it easy to acquire. Actually, that’s a rather old problem of the industries, because those keep refusing to accept new methods of distributing their content. As such, consumers are inclined to purchase products which are available when and where they want it.

Another problem which drives consumers to pirate material is the release date. Dotcom explains that the solution is “same day worldwide release”, which makes perfect sense. Of course, people will pirate films, games and other content in a region where they become legitimately available later than in the rest of the world. For instance, the movies are sometimes released in the US weeks or even months earlier than in Europe.

Beside the above mentioned issues, the content creators are also recommended to consider offering a fair price for their work. For instance, Louis CK, a well-known stand-up comedian has managed to earn millions while keeping the audience close by offering affordable prices of maximum $5 for a video and $45 for a show ticket.

Finally, compatibility is also an important issue. MegaUpload’s founder points out that working on any device is the best strategy. Why do you think Humble Bundle, a collection of indie video games, managed to make millions? The answer is obvious: because those video games work on any OS – Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. Everyone can enjoy playing the games and benefits for both the seller and the consumer are more than obvious.

These five steps were just Dotcom’s matter of opinion, but there can be many other reasons for people to pirate content.