IP apologists like to say that people such as myself who don’t like seeing ads, installing malware on our computers, or paying for copies of an infinite good have a “sense of entitlement” to content. As you might have guessed, I think this is hogwash. Corporations and content creators have gotten used to controlling the market, funneling people into black-and-white choices of whether or not to buy their product. Now, when that role has shifted, they don’t know how to respond. Rather than adapt, there is hand-wringing and tooth-gnashing as they call their customers by slurs like “pirate” and “thief.”
Here’s where we find the real sense of entitlement. Companies and even many independent content creators seem to be under the delusion that customers are obligated to support whatever business model they fancy to use. Last I checked, I wasn’t required to support business models that didn’t meet my needs.
It is always the responsibility of the producer to convince people to spend money on them, that’s how a competitive market works. Yet according to the legacy content industries, they simply need to fill buckets with slops and watch as the crowds eagerly gobble it up. When it doesn’t happen, the appropriate response is to adapt, not find ways to force people to pay for the same thing. Despite the lobbying for protectionist laws, the whiny op-eds, and the misguided lawsuits, individuals are only getting more powerful. They’re just as willing to spend their money as they always were, but they will get what they want.