Innovative tech companies that engage the music, movie, and gaming industries have proven to offer existing, legal business strategies that combat piracy by offering broad features and better service. Netflix, iTunes, Steam, Hulu, Spotify, Pandora, and similar services have drastically reduced cost to the consumer while offering broad libraries, internet streaming options, and other desirable features made possible by our technology.

Congress needs to be educated about the influence these services have, and the effect that a good business model with reasonable services can have in combating piracy. They have been manipulated into thinking that piracy is an issue that must be legislated away, when the truth is that services already exist that are doing a better job than legislation ever would!

Relevant articles and further reading:

NETFLIX

• Slate - How Netflix is Killing Piracy

• "It's convenient, it's not that expensive, and the selection is just good enough."

• The Consumerist - Study Shows Netflix Surpasses Piracy in Online Traffic

• PDF of relevant study by Sandvine

STEAM

• Techcrunch - How Steam stopped me from pirating games and enjoy the sweet DRM kool-aid

• Eurogamer - Valve: piracy a "non-issue" for Steam

• "Our goal is to create greater service value than pirates, and this has been successful enough for us that piracy is basically a non-issue for our company." -Gabe Newell

SPOTIFY

• TorrentFreak - Music Piracy Continues to Decline Thanks to Spotify