[p2p-research] Fwd: [fcforum] Fw: iPad DRM is a dangerous step backward. Sign the petition!

[Kevin Carson]

On 2/5/10, M. Fioretti <mfioretti at nexaima.net> wrote:

> > Nobody is entitled to a guarantee of the ability to recoup sunk
>  > costs of any kind.  You are free to spend your time any way you see
>  > fit, and to devise any business model you can think of to get money
>  > from so doing--so long as it doesn't involve coercing other people
>  > to make the business model viable.

> Very good point, but relax, I NEVER wanted to say anything of the
>  sort, nor do I think it. That sentence of mine above fully justifies
>  your reaction. Sorry, my mistake, it's been a long week. Here is what
>  I do think and what I would have written if I had re-read that message
>  of mine before sending it:
>
>  "I do certain things only if I know in advance that, IN CASE it does
>  (not "could"!!!)  generate some money in the first N years (where N
>  should be much, much less than it is today), that money comes to ME,
>  that is to the person who did spend his own time to do that thing, and
>  that I can stop others who didn't make any effort at all from taking a
>  part of that money".

Thanks for the clarification, Marco.

But what about the kinds of business models Chris Anderson and Mike
Masnick point to, making money off of scarce goods associated with
content, rather than off of the content itself?

I think that Eric Reasons is correct that the total "money pie" will
be less than that from the proprietary content it supplants, true
enough.

But at the same time, if we remove all forms of state-enforced
artificial property and artificial scarcity, the portion of the prices
of all the things that we consume that comes from embedded rents on
proprietary content, proprietary design, planned obsolescence
supported by proprietary design, subsidized waste, legally mandated
overhead cost, etc., will disappear.  Not to mention the portion of
living cost that comes from inflated asset values of land and housing,
the portion of healthcare cost that comes from drug patents and
licensing and mandated high-cost ways of doing things, etc.  This
means that the total overhead cost of living will be much, much lower,
and the pressure to spend time at wage labor and to  recoup a large
income stream to service those costs will also be much less.

-- 
Kevin Carson
Center for a Stateless Society http://c4ss.org
The Homebrew Industrial Revolution
http://homebrewindustrialrevolution.wordpress.com/
Mutualist Blog:  Free Market Anti-Capitalism
http://mutualist.blogspot.com
Organization Theory:  A Libertarian Perspective
http://mutualist.blogspot.com/2005/12/studies-in-anarchist-theory-of.html