Arthur wrote:
> ...the reality of digital information that can be viewed by one or a
> million all at the same time. How to allocate this resource when
> distribution costs are basically zero but production/creation costs
> are finite and sometimes quite high??
In general, I think the entire industry, as it is now structured, of
selling media, whether entertainment or scholarly, is dead. Of course,
it's not going to roll over on its own. There's such a vast amount of
money in the collective war chest that chaos can be expected for years
^H^H^H^H^H decades. (We've already *had* 20 years of the dying throes
of media.)
Just recently, several stores have started having bins of DVDs at $5 a
crack. We're now blowing between $10 and $40 a week on $5 DVDs.
(Bodes ill for the future of the DVD medium.) The point is that I
would have spent money every week for the last decade or more on DVDs
priced at $5 but only bought a single item (the LotR set) at the going
price of $25 to $45. Since the profitability of the movie industry is
so complex (regional licensing, DVDs, TV, toys, T-shirts, manga, comic
books, on-line distribution, games etc. etc.) and so opaque, it's
hard to make a case about price points for DVDs. But all the evidence
is that once a movie is shot and the first-run theater results are in,
it's a money tree.
There is no intrinsic reason of the order of "We hold these truths to
be self-evident..." that profits should accrue to anyone but the people
who actually did the work -- those who wrote the book or screenplay,
shot the film, drove the flaming motorcycles, played the guitar.
Exploitive capitalism isn't a embodiment of a self-evident truth.
Neal Stephenson's 1992 novel, _Snowcrash_, begins with the
assumption/assertion that the Chinese have put everything possible --
everything that is or can become digital media -- on the net for free,
turning the media industry into a smoking crater. Well, that didn't
happen but it could have happened. If they were to do it now, it would
ensure furious Western cooperation in bricking up the Great Firewall of
China. Maybe Pakistan or Iran will do that.
- Mike
--
Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada .~.
/V\
[email protected] /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/ ^^-^^
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