Web Extra: Super-Distribution Turns Pirates Into Friends - ' How Distribution Works '

How Distribution Works

So fans got this CD, and they could only play it a certain number of times on their computer and they couldn't distribute it online, but they could go to a Web site and order it online?

That's right. And this turned out to be one of the most successful promotions that the Sunday Times has ever done. If you think about it, there are a number of benefits from this promotion.

The Times was looking for additional subscribers and readership to their Sunday newspaper. They had one-point-something million. They were able to increase readership of this newspaper with that promotion because people wanted the CD. The band, Oasis, got what it wanted because it was able to create a buzz for their upcoming release to stimulate demand for preordering the album. The retailers benefited because they could connect to the consumers online to preorder the CD.

Look at it this way: Industries today have been embroiled in policy issues having to do with rights and issues of digital media and this whole MP3 phenomenon and peer-to-peer file sharing. Congress is looking at the various legislative activities that are being proposed.

In the meantime, we have been very busy working with the industry on this technology, especially with how would you protect and ensure rights management and legitimate licensing of the content in this digital domain, knowing that over time there will be standard policies that will exist for which the technology will, in essence, be a slave.

So what you have here is a bit of the chicken and the egg. You have to have business models, you have to have prescribed conditions, and the aim of technology is to carry that out. How many copies can I make? Can I move from one device from another? All that kind of stuff. There's a multi-hour conversation we can have about that.