I skip most MAFIAA bashing articles these days since they’re always rehashing the same old complaints (or stupid new tactics), but Mike from Techdirt actually has some clever commentary on industries who as a whole don’t understand what market they’re in.
It’s interesting to note that it wasn’t horse-drawn carriage makers who became successful automobile companies. No, they ended up going out of business, because they too narrowly defined their markets as being the horse-drawn carriage market, rather than the road-based transportation market, or just the transportation market. Of course, that was something the railroad businesses could have claimed as well — but they also were too narrowly focused on being in the railroad business (and, some say, were the inspiration behind passing certain anti-automobile laws early on in the automobile’s history). The horse-drawn carriage makers, however, very much should have realized they were in the transportation market, and should have been always looking for ways to step up to provide better and better systems for local transportation.
In the case of the RIAA[…]they believe their job is to distribute music, promote it, and get people to buy it. They make money by keeping that system closed and locked down. If they recognized they were really in the “entertaining people with music business” they should only be ecstatic about new technologies and services that make their job easier.
Link: http://techdirt.com/articles/20070125/004949.shtml
PS: One of the commenters on this article also brings up an interesting point that we’re nearing an economy where there is “so much free stuff available that people will pay you to find it for them”.