"We understand now that piracy is a business model " at Mipcom , Disney co-chair Anne Sweeney has broken with studio convention and recognised piracy as a business model to compete with, as opposed to simply an illegal threat to be battled. Sweeney's pragmatic conversion came after seing - within 15 minutes of the ABC network premiere of Despearate Housewives - a high-quality, ad-free version that had appeared on P2P networks. “We understand now that piracy is a business model. Reported on paidcontent.org and netribution.co.uk More on Sweeney's view from the recent interview on Jack Meyer's Media village : "One challenge is we need to sort out business models as we go. It's up to each company to sit back and take a deep breath and decide to take a risk. You have a creative vision and there's a fine line between success and failure." Anne believes the cable industry has matured in distribution and "is now ready for its second act. The fi...