tuxtoday

Consider this, thepiratebay.org tracks over a million torrents. Head over there and check their statistics if you don’t believe me. Now, browse their site, and you will find that a lot of the files, if not most, are contained in proprietary formats. The fact is, online piracy is one of the most effective way of reaching standards. Everything from rar-compression, and mp3-audio, xvid-video, I dare say, would not have been as succesful if it had not been the choice of the pirates.

I’ll leave the moral issue in the closet today, because this is more of a  mind experiment than a part of a debate in the evening paper.

I have thought a lot about this, and I must say, I see no more effective way of promoting free and open formats than through the distribution of some “must-have” materials in those formats.

Let’s say Timbaland’s new album would be made available to the public in the ogg-format long before it get’s release, or even before it’s available in the mp3-format…

The effect? Well, some people would get angry of the stupid moron who deided to use the worthless ogg-format. Who has ever heard of ogg anyway?

Now, let’s consider the effect if the above scenario were to occur every day, with more and more new releases being prereleased in free formats.

I don’t think I’m the only one believe that this could be a truly effective way of promoting ogg as a viable option to mp3. After all, “the scene” seem to use it, so it must be good, right?

The same could be true for everything from movies to digitalized comicboks. Of course, XviD is free software, but to avoid patent trolling it might be good to convert over to Theora.

I’m not trying to make some pro-piracy statements. However it will not matter if ogg vorbis is superior to mp3 if the most popular ways of getting music doesn’t provide that format.
I realize it might be a bit controversial of me for suggesting that piracy, quite possibly, is the only way for us to spread the use of free formats, but it needs to be said.

Links: 
ThePirateBay
Xiph.org (For Ogg Vorbis/Theora)
Disclaimer:
Please do not post comments that point out that thepiratebay.org has torrents for completely legal purposes too. I do know this, however that particular site is open for anyone to post anything, so the availability of content that is illegal in some countries is almost guaranteed.