Messages in this thread | | | Date | Sun, 27 Apr 2003 13:34:28 -0700 | From | walt <> | Subject | Re: Why DRM exists [was Re: Flame Linus to a crisp!] |
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Larry McVoy wrote:
> ...If you want to win, you win by being a creator, not a copier...
DisneyCorp was a prime mover behind the DMCA (or so I'm told), so let's take them as an example. They have been a copier of artistic material for decades -- one of the biggest ever. They 'improve' the material they copy and then make a fortune by clever marketing and by charging whatever the market will bear -- a market historically controlled by the producer of the product because there was, until very recently, no aftermarket. You had to buy from the producer because you couldn't buy the product from anyone else -- until now.
My point is that the mind-boggling wealth produced from mass-marketed entertainment products has been generated by strict control of the means of distribution -- printing press, airwaves, film, records, tape, CD's, and now, finally, the internet.
Oops. Well, they don't control that last one, come to think of it. And that is the big problem for monopolists like Disney -- they can't control the supply of their product and thus they can't control the price either.
The artificial scarcity of their product is over at last, due entirely to advances in technology. The question for society to answer is whether this is an evil fact or a good fact. I think most people think it good, not evil, and therefore the technology will not be going away anytime soon.
The media producers, therefore, are going to lose this battle to prop up the price of their product to artificially high levels. They have the money to buy legislation only because they have had strict control of the means of distribution of their own product which has made them artificially wealthy. This is now changing and they had better adapt or they will perish.
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