[p2p-research] One more link re: P2P economics ..

[M. Fioretti]

Just a couple of quick notes, I'll answer to last message from David
later this week as I must absolutely finish something else first.

On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 10:18:03 AM +0700, Michel Bauwens wrote:

> On the p2presearch list, I/we were recently challenged by Italian digital
> rights activist Marco Fioretti, for our sympathy for the Pirate Bay.

At least in the recent past, I **only** object to calling that P2P.
Whether TPB and file sharing is right, wrong, good or bad, I'm trying
to leave those questions aside right now, just to make the discussion
simpler.

> (at least from the viewpoint of the entertainment industry) would be that we
> are seeing how a downloaded file does not necessarily replace a purchase, since
> many consumers actually value the actual nature of the content differently. A
> film can today exist as an online file of varying bit-rate and encoding
> (technical quality)   instantly duplicable, for free; or as a full-price DVD
> (with lots of extra material); as a TV broadcast either (seemingly) free or
> pay-per-view; or, for that sake, as a slimmed down DVD version, handed out
> (seemingly) for free with Sunday newspapers! File-sharing is here merely part
> of a radical fragmentation of distribution vehicles, and   in parallel with
> that   a radical fragmentation of value.  (One positive outcome of the
> uncontrolled copying is thus that for every file copied, the artist s or
> content producer s fifteen minutes of fame is momentarily extended and might
> gain them in the long run. The sharing of the online file-sharers could here be
> seen to actually contribute to the value of the content spread, although
> perhaps more as an unintended by-effect than by deliberation. As with many
> other contemporary areas of consumer-producer relations, this is in effect a
> radical process of  outsourcing  labour to users. The end-users make part of
> the effort of distribution, saving labour on the producer/distributor side, lo 
> wer ing prices, altering competition balances, etc. When file-sharers thus help
> musicians be heard more easily, they effectively, however tacitly, act as PR
> agents in some respects (and may get sued in the process, adding insult to
> injury!). If we still are to persist with applying the con cept of aura to the

> The founders of Pirate Bay are in my eyes the heroes of the new
> world, putting a place a very efficient system of sharing, at great
> personal risk, and with little personal gain.

Define little. The last two statements below are to take with a big
grain of salt, of course (**) (just like the ones from TPB founders
that they aren't making any money, just paying expenses): but I
wouldn't be surprised if their personal gain so far is quite more than
you or I made last year. No problem with that, my only objection was
the P2P definition.

"Evidence in court showed they had set up a company in the British
Virgin Islands, a well-known tax haven, to squirrel away the profits
they made from advertising sales."
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/you-wont-stop-us-vow-pirate-bay-owners-despite-jail-terms-1670410.html

"Prosecutor Hakan Roswall.. added that the site could be making as
much as $4 million annually off these ad revenues."
http://www.betanews.com/article/Sweden-formally-charges-Pirate-Bay-owners/1201799919

"Pirate Bay started with a free-spirited, Robin Hood ethos, liberating
content from the shackles of capitalism for the benefit of the people,
but it has become a capitalist enterprise it its own right, with
advertising being handled by an agency in Tel Aviv and the money, €2
million last year, flowing into a bank in the Cayman Islands."
http://aaupblog.aaupnet.org/?cat=10

Marco

(**) and yes, the warning from the AAUP guy about malware is really
ridiculous...

-- 
Your own civil rights and the quality of your life heavily depend on how
software is used *around* you:            http://digifreedom.net/node/84