[p2p-research] what to think of the market

[Ryan Lanham]

>
> Kevin Carson>
>
> I've been a fan of Baker for a long time.  He grossly overestimates
> the positive effect of patents and copyright in stimulating
> innovation, IMO.  Most product and process innovations would have been
> developed without patents, according to a study by F.M. Scherer, and
> the "freemium" model (i.e. Redhat and Phish) is pretty broadly
> applicable as a way of making money despite free content.  If
> anything, patents suppress innovation.
>
> --
>
In digital media, I agree.  Just saw Chris Anderson on Charlie Rose's show.
He was talking about his new book "Free."  He wasn't very interesting, but
he made the point that business models are changing.  I think we can't make
fundamental economic assumptions because economics, like all social science,
is contextual to the times in which it is spun.  Patents made more sense 50
years ago and so did copyrights, now the latter makes little sense as
generally set in law and the former is making less and less sense.

Innovation requires markets...not necessarily protections.  That said, small
groups will forever more protect themselves from global competition and who
can blame them.  If they can do it, why can a small group in a major
market?  So, it isn't going to go away.  The best option is to create as
many free or freemium products as is possible.  The ideology is increasingly
a waste of time.

Ryan
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/attachments/20090722/99f083cd/attachment.html>