The death throes of an industry

Post by paulsutter » Wed, Mar 28, 2012, 9:22 PM UTC

guard-of-terra wrote: post #25

paulsutter wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn't all of the mobile apps our friends are writing fit onto that same disk drive? With room to spare for the source code to Facebook and Google? Does that indicate that the entire intellectual property business is in its "death throes"? You could also include all the credit card numbers and ACH information for all the accounts in the world on that same drive. I guess that means its OK to use those numbers? How c…

"the bits created by media companies" They don't. Media companies don't write songs, neither they're really shoot movies. They are the middlemen. Yes, I think that my bits are more valuable than the vapor created by middlemen. But there's more important issue: Once I have 100000 books, 1000000 songs and 10000 movies on my hard drives, I might lose desire to have any of their bits at all. I don't even need them produc…

There are a lot of super smart guys working day and night to create movies, and they're solving a lot of hard technical challenges and applying many decades of experience in what makes a production entertaining.

While I dont watch a lot of TV or see a lot of movies, I certainly respect the impressive work that goes into them.

Post by paulsutter » Wed, Mar 28, 2012, 9:33 PM UTC

ajscherer wrote: post #17

paulsutter wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn't all of the mobile apps our friends are writing fit onto that same disk drive? With room to spare for the source code to Facebook and Google? Does that indicate that the entire intellectual property business is in its "death throes"? You could also include all the credit card numbers and ACH information for all the accounts in the world on that same drive. I guess that means its OK to use those numbers? How c…

Software is not analogous because it has been developed from the very start with the knowledge that the bits would be easily copy-able, and has been designed accordingly. I remember being asked to type in phrases from a game instruction manual at least a decade before anyone was consuming commercial audio or video on their PC. Furthermore, software is an interactive medium, which makes copy protection easier, and cop…

I agree that draconian laws or snooping measures are not reasonable mechanisms to enforce copyright.

But the analogy to mobile is interesting. Mobile app revenues are absolutely booming, and mobile apps dont require inconvenient or invasive protection schemes. Mobile apps are easier to buy than pirate, and they are reasonably priced. It's bizarre to me that most of the good content isn't available for streaming, when I'd be perfectly happy to pay per view.

I dont have any media in my home. It's all streamed. My friends who pirate all deal with torrents and file conversions and moving files around. And honestly I dont have time for that. It's far cheaper just to pay for it. Or not watch it at all, because most of the good content isn't available for streaming. Which is the real problem.

Re: The death throes of an industry

Re: The death throes of an industry