Digital Trees, Digital Dollars

In chapter 4 of his book, Lanier seems to be convinced that eventually, creative people will have to give away all of their work online for free, which he terms 'donating it to the hivemind.' I really disagree with the concept of that happening. Yes, it does seem that this is the way that many people want creative content to be, as pirating music, movies, and other content has not really slowed down since it first became widespread through Napster and other P2P programs. This does not necessarily mean that the future is so bleak for content producers. Governments have been cracking down on sites that provide pirated material, while media companies are beginning to understand better ways to provide content digitally. The most successful model, in my eyes, has been the subscription model. Giving nearly unlimited access to a variety of media means that consumers will not turn to piracy to fill in gaps in their media collection, which is often the justification of piracy. Some issues that stand in the way of this idea include international copyright laws that often prevent subscription services from offering global products and every individual media company/label wanting to create their own service so that they can receive a greater portion of the profits.