This story in the NYTimes [Free Reg Required and it expires after a week] Studios Using Digital Armour to Fight Piracy is fascinating, not so much from the technology perspective (although the implications for owners of current equipment of constantly evolving security standards is significant) as from the social and economic drivers the entertainment business is putting in place.

As access to "content" becomes ever more tied in licensing knots with different content being available for different times on different machines at differing quality depending on the price you are prepared to pay, we will very quickly reach another marker in the development of digital media. It is one that I have already passed. I no longer care about who is producing what popular music, I don't care much more for the movies that are being produced, I don't own, or care to own a DVD and, as my current technology finds that it no longer has access to the feast of delights being created by the corporate entertainment business I will simply revert to playing what I have already and leaving it at that.

The thing that the entertainment people have forgotten is that in order to survive, they have to be attractive. That means they have to engage my attention, seduce me, draw me in, tempt me. If they then slam on the brakes and demand that I buy new machines to play their mediocre offerings, then pony up ever more money for ever more restrictive licenses the outcome will be that I cease to include them in my budget. The Commercial entertainment business is not necessary. If I don't use their products I don't die and I get some of my life back.

Microsoft has discovered what happens when you try to tie people up in licenses that make life ever tougher for the pirates but also destroy the pleasure of the ordinary users, we leak away to the Free and Open Source software suppliers. The music and film industry will find exactly the same; live theatre and music performances will make a come-back and the media and entertainment businesses will go bankrupt as they deserve to.

In the meantime, this story in the Times points to a growing number of people advertising on file swapping services such as Kazaa as a way of contacting people who are clearly interested in the products they sell.

The ranks of these marketers include independent bands with little to lose and established companies like Microsoft. What they have in common is that they are starting to view the masses of Internet pirates as a possible source of revenue. They have begun to experiment with promoting their wares on file- trading services, which are typically used to obtain unauthorized copies of music, movies or software.