Angry Birds Dev: "Piracy may not be a bad thing after all"

Angry Birds developer Rovio believes that piracy can be beneficial, and that the media industries can attract new "fans" -- or rather potential paying customers -- by actually embracing those that steal from them. Rovio chief executive Mikael Hed made this revelation at the Midem conference in Cannes on Monday, saying that fighting piracy is simply "futile."



"Piracy may not be a bad thing: it can get us more business at the end of the day," he said.

"We have some issues with piracy, not only in apps, but also especially in the consumer products," Hed told the audience. "There is tons and tons of merchandise out there, especially in Asia, which is not officially licensed products. We could learn a lot from the music industry, and the rather terrible ways the music industry has tried to combat piracy."

"We could learn a lot from the music industry, and the rather terrible ways the music industry has tried to combat piracy."
"We took something from the music industry, which was to stop treating the customers as users, and start treating them as fans," he said. "We do that today: we talk about how many fans we have. If we lose that fanbase, our business is done, but if we can grow that fanbase, our business will grow."

"Already our apps are becoming channels, and we can use that channel to cross-promote – to sell further content," he said. "The content itself has transformed into the channel, and the traditional distribution channels are no longer the kingmakers." Rovio is considering working with music companies on in-app partnerships for Angry Birds

"We have some issues with piracy, not only in apps, but also especially in the consumer products. There is tons and tons of merchandise out there, especially in Asia, which is not officially licensed products," said Hed.

Image: www.angrybirdsgamer.com