I was going to start this blog off with a confession about different files and programs I may or may not have pirated in my life, but then I thought better of it. You never know who actually reads this thing. Instead, I’m going to provide a couple links that argue the possible effects of pirating digital media and the future of authors and artists who create such media.

The first link is to Scott Adam’s blog. You might know him as the Dilbert cartoonist. He basically argues that within his lifetime authors won’t exist:

I predict that the profession known as “author” will be retired to history in my lifetime, like blacksmith and cowboy. In the future, everyone will be a writer, and some will be better and more prolific than others. But no one will pay to read what anyone else creates. People might someday write entire books – and good ones – for the benefit of their own publicity, such as to promote themselves as consultants, lecturers, or the like. But no one born today is the next multi-best-selling author. That job won’t exist.

As an author, my knee-jerk reaction is to assume that the media content of the future will suck because there will be no true professionals producing it. But I think suckiness is solved by better search capabilities. Somewhere out in the big old world are artists who are more talented than we can imagine, and willing to create content for free, for a variety of reasons. And so, as our ability to search for media content improves, the economic value of that content will approach zero. Read more »