Everyday that I spend researching new web trends, creative internet marketing, and other successful business in the web arena and I am realizing that the best part of the web is the entrepreneurial free market approach. Sure you got people that steal identities, spam scammers, and other individuals who use the web for unethical things, but that does not mean it’s not a true free market. In life, there are the good and the bad and it will always be that way, and so will the internet. Luckily there are a lot of good people out their helping companies protect their property. A true free market is regulated by private companies or indivduals instead of the government. The web is a prime example of free market regualtion by private businesses. Many companies employ software coders to protect their information, or they outsource that process to private companies. It’s a very successful approach from a companies standpoint to employ intellectual property protection experts because they don’t have to wait for government paper pushers to get things done.
I would vote it is virtually impossible to stop piracy, but companies will pay for this data to find out how to salvage the value of their intellectual property. A good friend once told me that “knowledge is the only thing that can’t be taken away from you”. To most extents of the argument that took place over his concept is true, except when we talk about composing knowledge into text or speech. Whether it’s software coding, article writing, test taking, seminars & hands on training; people will take this information when it’s given and use it to their advantage in their surroundings. This is not an excuse for piracy but a psychological view on the act of data consumption by a human being. People love to learn and they will do anything to get the information they need to have more success in their environment.
One of my friends is one the TOP 5 of software engineers in the world. I was speaking with him other day and he literally was monitoring many different aspects of web activity, piracy trends, and whole slew of stuff that would make you crap your pants. He primarily was focusing on piracy monitoring of video games and movies across the world. He compiled piracy data that software companies pay for to properly seek licensing agreements with countries and other regions in the world to salvage their intellectual property. People go to extreme extents to steal software, but on the flip side companies go to more extreme extents to protect it.
What does this article have to do with the internet being a free market?
The open market on the internet will have thieves just like a department store. Retailers deal with shoplifters by installing thousands of dollars worth of cameras and staffing teams of security guards full time to watch of the goods. It seems logical to understand why the act of shoplifting is bad, right? Well apply that thought process to software and you will begin to realize why companies are so concerned with protecting this property. Free markets are not perfect. Whether it’s financial, retail or online businesses their will always be watch dogs. But in the case of the internet the watch dogs are generally a business and not government employees. This is a good thing because when you make money doing something then you do it the best. The government tries to make money but always ends up spending more and getting less. A successful business model will never spend more than it earns. So that is why having private watch dogs on the internet is successful for both the software companies and the software coders who provide this research.
