American-Statesman: Suspect Position, Bad Example, Another Bad Example, Debunked Statistics, Contradiction
from the so-much-silly dept
Most of the time the articles we take issue with at Techdirt have something in them we disagree with or find silly. And by something, I mean to indicate that there's a singular wrong in there that we point out. Or, at most, a couple of wrongs. But sometimes you encounter a piece written for a supposedly reputable publication that seems so much as though it was written to be completely wrong, that I start to wonder if LulzSec has begun infiltrating the mainstream press. Take this American-Statesman article by Gary Dinges piece by piece for an example of what I'm talking about:
"Months and months of hard work available for illegal downloading free of charge in a matter of minutes. That's the difficulty facing authors, filmmakers and musicians across the nation, costing them untold sums of money each year."
Well, gee, Gary, that sounds positively terrifying. It must be hard on these creators who are clearly in horrific dire straits. Care to share an example?
"It has become rampant," said Sandra Brown, a Dallas-area author with 60 New York Times bestsellers. "I have an assistant — a real Internet guru — who spends the bulk of her time monitoring the Web."
Ah, got it....wait, what?!!? I just want to make sure I understand this completely. You're offering up a well-known author who is routinely on the best sellers list? In order to demonstrate the struggle of authors with regards to internet piracy? Maybe next you'd like to do a piece on the political glass ceiling of minorities in America and use Barack Obama as your prime example?
And here's another question: How bad has internet piracy made things for you when you have the resources to pay an assistant, a real internet guru no less, (whatever her salary is) to spend the majority of her time "monitoring the Web"? And what the hell does that even mean? And why are you doing it? I for one totally envy that internet "guru" getting a fat check to play Bejewelled all week then turn in a report saying "yup, the internet still exists".
Okay...vitriol aside, how can this possibly make sense economically? If we were able to get some concrete answer as to which ended up costing Sandra more (real, not potential) money overall, the evil and vengeful internet or the salary of her faithful assistant for "monitoring" it, which do you think it'd be?
But back to Dinges' article. He then offers us Dano Johnson, an animator who we learn has had his own battles with internet piracy. Apparently he animated a movie that ended up on YouTube and was viewed five thousand times or so before a DMCA takedown was issued. Dano's response?
"'I feel like I got robbed 5,000 times,' he said."
Well golly gee willickers, friend, sometimes I feel like a character from a Mel Brooks spoof movie, but feelings don't really mean a whole lot here, do they? The fact of the matter is that you weren't robbed five thousand times. I wonder how many of those folks who viewed the YouTube video would have done so if it weren't there to see for free to begin with? I wonder how many of them came across it for the first time when someone shared a link? I wonder if YouTube felt "robbed" for five thousand instances of promoting you at no cost? Did you pay YouTube for any of that? Book yourself, Dano (sorry, couldn't resist).
Now, after the article then goes on to quote all the billions and trillions of sweet American dollars that are being directly removed from the economy, ostensibly never to be seen again, we get back to the best line of the piece with one final quote from Dano Johnson on what effect piracy has had on his willingness to create his art:
"Piracy isn't going to make me want to stop making films."
Oh, sweet internet Gods, thank you for this. Piracy, while perhaps annoying, doesn't stop creation. And if you acknowledge that copyright is supposed to be an incentive to create, we arrive at the inevitable conclusion that nuclear options like ProtectIP, which is what this article was actually all about even though they didn't name the increasingly controversial bill by name, are not the answer.
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The only real technology company that has been around for 100 years is IBM. That is, if you do not count car manufacturers like Ford or utilities companies like General Electric. In its modern format, the Internet has been around for about 20 years and widely used for about 15. Evernote has been around since 2006 and has only gained popularity (now with 11 million users) in the last year or so.
So, what makes this company think that it can last for 100 years?
In his blog post, Libin quotes Sean Parker (as played by Justin Timberlake) in The Social Network: ""A million dollars isn't cool, you know what's cool? A billion dollars."
"Well, we don't think a billion dollars is all that cool either. You know what's really cool? Making a hundred year company," Libin wrote. "That's a pretty big deal; not many companies make it anywhere close, but we sort of signed up for the task when we started talking about earning your lifetime trust. You plan on living a long time, right?"
A Lot of Things Can Happen in 100 Years
There are so many things that could happen in 100 years. Global warming could melt the planet. Nuclear war could ... well, also melt the planet. Skynet could take over and let the machines rule the world. Do the machines have need of Evernote?
A hot new startup could make online note-taking easier, more powerful and more intuitive than Evernote or a new technology could make the need for digital archives obsolete.
In its short history, Evernote has shown that it can innovate and adapt rapidly to an ever-changing landscape. It recognized mobile as a big opportunity early and now has applications for almost every major platform. It recognized cloud storage and computing early and the necessity of making its service available anywhere and everywhere through the cloud as an essential practice with parallel thinking to what Google wants to do with its applications.
Unlike a lot of startups these days, Evernote uses its own servers to host and make transactions along its database. That means the company is not beholden to Amazon Web Services or Rackspace or any other data center. That is important, as building its own infrastructure will be key to sustaining longevity. The fact that the company now has a fat war chest and a profitable business model will keep Evernote around in the near-term future, even if the economy reaches Depression-era levels.
Evernote Just Might Have The Chops
Evernote has hired Ken Gullicksen (an Evernote board member and formerly of Capitola Ventures, BilltoMobile and Voltage Security, among others according to his LinkedIn profile) to lead its corporate development and acquisition strategy. Here is what Gullicksen had to say about Evernote in a press release.
"It's rare to see a company develop so many high quality products, rapidly grow its user base into the millions and become profitable in such a short period of time. This is a testament to Evernote's leadership and team," said Gullicksen. "With the right strategic decisions, Evernote is in a position to go from popular app to fundamental technology. I'm thrilled to come onboard and be a part of the company's next phase."
So far, Evernote has shown that it is managed well by forward thinking leaders with a cadre of talented developers churning out new features to the platform all the time. The company is already profitable and the new round of funding will be used to compensate long-term investors and employees and then for innovation and acquisition. So far, so good.
But a lot of things can happen in 100 years. Evernote is 1/20th of the way there. Can it continue to grow and innovate uninhibited for another 95 years?
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