[rayiner]

I could very well twist that and say: I value the freedom of hard-working content creators to make money from their labor over the freedom of teenagers to get free copies of popular movies and video games, but I won't because the nature of the parties in question is really irrelevant to me.

I value the freedom of creators of original works. Without them, there would be nothing to share. I don't care of those creators are profit-driven mega-corporations or starving artists. I think in a digital, connected age, the moral right to one's intellectual creations becomes stronger, not weaker.[1] I'm perfectly supportive of people who chose to share their original work, but I respect that some people don't want to share, or control the terms of that sharing, and that is their prerogative.

[1] Thought experiment: in games like World of Warcraft, weapons, armor, etc, are trivially reproducible. But would anyone play the game if you could just click on someone's weapon that he stole off a dragon (or whatever it is you do in WoW--I've never played it) and have your own copy?

[clicks]

> Thought experiment: in games like World of Warcraft, weapons, armor, etc, are trivially reproducible. But would anyone play the game if you could just click on someone's weapon that he stole off a dragon (or whatever it is you do in WoW--I've never played it) and have your own copy?

Not a very good analogy to demonstrate your point, as the scarcity of resources within the game is a central facet of the gameplay.

rayiner, I often see you as the lone man arguing on these things -- about information being free, journals being freely accessible, etc. You're unconvinced as of yet -- so I want to make the recommendation of two of Lawrence Lessig's books to you: Free culture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Culture_(book)) and Remix (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remix_(book)) -- both freely available for download on a CC license I should add. :)

You're a great writer and I wish more people engaged with you on the points you raise. If you go on to read the two books, I would be genuinely interested in hearing your thoughts.

[roel_v]

"rayiner, I often see you as the lone man arguing on these things "

Probably because it's so futile to argue fundamentalists. I know I have gotten better better at restraining myself from getting dragged into this sort of 'discussions' with people who are not susceptible to any form of reasonableness.

FWIW, it used to be that on this site, the creators were the ones celebrated. Nowadays it seems to have shifted largely to celebrating the freeloaders, or enablers of them.

[tptacek]

The scarcity of WoW goods is precisely as artificial as the scarcity of high-def movies.

[CamperBob2]

Huh? WoW goods are key elements in a game specifically designed around their acquisition. IP is a tiny part of a completely different game we call the "economy," a game that was designed and refined around a radically different class of goods with essentially no attributes in common.

Trying to apply market-economic rules to IP is like trying to use a Zamboni as a lawnmower. Sure, it can be done, but you're going to have to force people to do it, and they are going to invent some very creative workarounds.

When you have to force people to follow the rules, it often means there's something wrong with the rules.

[tptacek]

This is simply a difference of degree. If first-run movies were available to DVR off basic cable, they would also make far less money. In both cases, we discuss the economics of digital goods that derive value from an extrinsic scarcity.

[jhuni]

High-def movies are sold for a profit unlike most WoW goods so they are more like the goods sold in the Maple Story cash shop.

[jhuni]

> I value the freedom of hard-working content creators to make money from their labor over the freedom of teenagers to get free copies of popular movies and video games

I appreciate how you twisted this. This reveals that you take an ageist position against teenagers. When I was fifteen I knew everything I needed to know about the world and I was studying higher mathematics full time in college. Teenagers can be just as intelligent and productive as anyone else. Despite this, you value the right of movie companies like Metro-Goldwyn Mayer, 20th Century Fox, Disney, Paramount, Warner bros, and Universal Studios to make a profit over the freedom of our teenagers to share with one another.

> I don't care of those creators are profit-driven mega-corporations or starving artists.

The existing copyright policies are created by profit-driven mega-corporations rather then individual artists because the big corporations have all the political power, so you are implicitly supporting these corporations over individual artists.

Programmers would greatly benefit from living in a society where all software is free because they would never have to use a program that alienates them from the process of software production. Operating systems could be rebuilt to eliminate the user/produce distinction and to drastically increase programmer productivity. However, profit-driven mega-corporations like Microsoft and Apple cannot allow that because that would destroy their profit model.

Similarly, individual artists would benefit from the freedom to use our accumulated artistic knowledge without being alienated from it by the profit-driven corporations. Mega-corporations don't want that, they want what we have now which is copyright that lasts 120 years after creation.

> Thought experiment: in games like World of Warcraft, weapons, armor, etc, are trivially reproducible.

I don't have much of an issue with participating in a virtual commodity economy for fun and not to make a profit. Blizzard makes its money off of WoW from subscription fees rather then game economy itself. However, some free-to-play games like Maple Story run cash shops for profit and I oppose the existence of such cash shops as much as I do all other markets that sell artificially scarce goods for a profit.