Memo to: Media Monopolists

The disappearance of the $100 million dinosaur gets to the heart of your misery, doesn't it? You're in love with your version of the world. You can't imagine that people might actually want to trade what they have now for free, ubiquitous access to entertainment. You're likely to use power, money, and leverage to forbid us from even considering making the trade. But please remember: Copyright was invented for consumers, not for producers. Copyright is there to make sure that there's plenty of stuff for all of us to read and watch. Despite the name, copyright is not your right.

Senator Fritz Hollings, warrior on your behalf, feels your pain. He views the technology companies and their customers as not much more than thieves. Apple makes money from the iPod -- on the backs of the artists who aren't getting compensated every time we listen. Steve Jobs must be torn. On one hand, he makes iPods. On the other, he makes Monsters, Inc.

Think about that for a second. Steve Jobs has two jobs, and one of them could bankrupt the other (if your rhetoric is to be believed). He's not dumb. He gets it.

And Jobs isn't really torn. Why not? Because he has learned not to think like a monopolist. He learned the hard way. Apple had a monopoly on the personal computer. After just a couple of years on top, it started acting like it was the only game in town. With Apple playing the bully, IBM and Microsoft snuck in and trounced the Apple II with their own version of the PC. Apple could have immediately created a better computer. Instead, it whined and moaned, like all monopolists, and watched as the industry it built got taken away.

Jobs came back with the Macintosh -- way, way better than the PC. Apple got traction. It seemed as though it might be on its way to becoming a monopolist again, so it started acting like one. Instead of licensing the Mac OS far and wide, it tried to control the market. Microsoft (it takes one to know one) saw the monopoly mind-set and shrewdly used Windows to take the moment away again. Jobs, now an underdog for the third time, seems to have learned.

Microsoft can teach something to you and to all of the other monopolists. It's not about Washington lobbying or long court fights. It's about attitude. Microsoft is great at being a paranoid monopolist. It is delighted to extract every penny it can from any market it can monopolize. But as a company, Microsoft is insanely paranoid. It expects every monopoly to disappear at any moment, and it always has a backup plan. Microsoft is happy to embrace the new and to encourage a market, because it knows that if it starts now, it has an even better chance of monopolizing that market when it grows.

One last thing: I'm not saying that I want the markets to be the way they are. I'm not saying that pirating is right. But I am saying that it exists and that it's going to become more widespread. So here are your basic choices: You can whine, lobby, sue, and then cripple your product so that it can't be copied. Or, maybe, just maybe, you can stop thinking like a monopolist long enough to find new business models, new markets, and new strategic plans.

You're not going out of business tomorrow. The structures that you have built and perfected are going to stick around for a long time. But it's not going to get better, more profitable, or more fun. It's only going to get worse.

Bill Gates has a backup plan, guys. What's yours?

Seth Godin (sgodin@fastcompany.com) is a Fast Company contributing editor.