If there’s one thing the past decade or so of digital evolution should have taught us, it’s that micromanaging modes of sharing and interaction, like the take-down of Napster or the one-time dismantling of Pirate Bay, does little or nothing to curb the behaviours it intends to outlaw. While Napster’s role was quickly filled by Limewire, eDonkey and any number of other file-sharing platforms, users of Pirate Bay just spread out laterally across a bevy of bit-torrent options. In cutting off a Medusa’s head, we’ve seen the growth of a mass of new serpents. It doesn’t work. And while fewer people may be using applications like these now to acquire music and videos, that fact has likely much more to do with the success and rise of the iTunes store, Netflix and YouTube than the beheading of their forefathers.

To gain ground in the battle on modes of interaction and file sharing, it’s the unleashing of better, faster and more convenient tools that shows notable success.

Madonna: We're concerned about your paycheck.

I remember the first time I downloaded an album only to find out it was a purposeful imposter, posted by its producers, to combat the file-sharing they saw decimating their record-sales profits. Quotes from Madonna, Metallica and the like were all over the place for a time, condemning the theft of their art.

The problem was that these comments seemed to come exclusively from Madonna, Metallica and the like, and the authenticity of their cries of foul play never rang true. They pitched their case as a righteous indignation over the sharing that was robbing them of their income, but I always heard it and thought… Am I supposed to feel badly about Madonna’s paycheck?

Radiohead's In Rainbows: My first "pay-what-you-can" album.

Conversely, I remember when I downloaded my copy of Radiohead’s In Rainbows album, directly from their website, after making my voluntary donation. There was a novelty to it at the time, as it was I think an unprecedented way for a band to sell directly to their listeners on such a scale, in a pay-what-you-can manner. I recall reading that around 2 out of 5 downloaders chose to pay for the album, and that the average donation was around the six dollar mark, as opposed to the mere 15% cut that they would have made of each previous conventional album’s sale.

Since that time I’ve continued to pay-what-I-can for direct downloads of albums, straight from the musicians’ sites, and each time I’ve done so with pleasure. This form of purchasing carries with it the added emotional bonus of making the purchaser feel as though they’re part of an authentic musical community, interacting directly with the artist, as well as being a consumer.

I read an article today, an anecdote and discussion about banning the use of some means of digital communications from youth. When Dad Banned Text Messaging, an article from the New York Times, explored the case of one family where Dad has decided that his children do not use text messaging responsibly, and so banishes the send button from their mobile services. The author, mom, seems to be letting dad direct the traffic on this one, but is sitting in the background quietly hoping that he’ll relent and let the kids send messages again.

There seems to be a corollary point here. How do we see decisions like Dad’s developing in the long run? Is it more likely that his kids will come up with other means of communicating with their friends, or that they will simply stop this inappropriate communication as Dad desires? My guess, is that they’ll find a way around it. But in the process of doing so, they’ll resent and normalize the deception of their father for making and enforcing this decision. How might it play forward if they get in the habit of deceiving their father? It’s all speculation.

On the other hand, what is the potential in this situation for curbing this undesirable behavior throughout the promotion and growth of a better, faster, more convenient way of doing it? What is the potential for control of  inappropriate text messaging through an iTunes-like solution?

As educators, we know that our successes come through empowering our students to reflect on and modify their behaviours based on observable benefits, and understood rights and responsibilities. Might the father in this case, like the industry in the case of music-sharing, find more success in promoting different means of communication, or music purchasing, than in trying to stamp out undesirable behaviours one by one. The next such behaviour will always follow close behind.