[saidajigumi]

Because here, in the post-industrial world, it's very hard to make a living from one-off works of craftsmanship. That didn't used to be the case, when that was the only way to get things made. It happens today, but the economics make it an unusual situation. The labor involved forces the per-unit prices to be stratospheric, vastly limiting the market.

But we have an alternative: leverage digital technology's nigh-zero marginal costs and charge very reasonable prices to large numbers of people.

The idea that because the marginal cost is zero that the cost should be zero is a horribly greedy devaluation of creative labor.

So I'm all for new economic structures, but AFAICT no one's stepped up with a better way that's actually proven to allow creative folks to continue to make a living. (Or that even has a snowball's chance once tried outside of armchair philosophizing.)

One last thought, since it's universally sizable corporations who control those digital distribution channels... do we REALLY want to cede even more power over content to these entities? If we just drop IP laws, that further enriches these corps at the cost of individual and/or small creators. That makes no sense to me whatsoever.

[hackuser]

> If we just drop IP laws, that further enriches these corps at the cost of individual and/or small creators. That makes no sense to me whatsoever.

A good question, but I'm not sure. Those large corporations produce a lot of IP; maybe the small guy will benefit more than the big guy. Remember we're all stealing from and building on each other's IP. Imagine if all the proprietary software was open source, from OS X to Office to SunOS to SAS to Mathematica to Photoshop to AutoCAD to Google's search algorithms.

It would be a dream for many to be able to study, learn from, and reuse that code. It would be like the IP of the academic world, which generally is open and reusable by others.

[raquo]

> Imagine if all the proprietary software was open source, from OS X to Office to SunOS to SAS to Mathematica to Photoshop to AutoCAD to Google's search algorithms

Most of this wouldn't even exist if it had to be open-source from the start.

[hackuser]

I agree that's a possibility, and it's the obvious concern. I'm trying to challenge our (mine included) common notion.

My 'radical idea' is that maybe they would exist. What if we had a system that provided a payment mechanism but did away with IP restrictions, for example? Consider how most of science is funded and shared, for example. Massive projects like the LHC and space probes are funded, and their data is openly shared. I'm not saying that the exact same system would work for software, but that there are other systems that work very well.

I'd expect that with 'open' technology, innovation would be faster and products would be better, as everyone could use and learn from best-in-class tech.

[lmm]

On the contrary, most of these things started as either university research projects or just someone playing around, and were only monetized later.

[incompatible]

Abolishing copyright would be a good idea in my opinion, but it wouldn't make proprietary software open source.

[quadrangle]

Abolish patents and copyright and mandate source-release for published works along with prohibition of DRM

[thaumasiotes]

> Because here, in the post-industrial world, it's very hard to make a living from one-off works of craftsmanship. That didn't used to be the case

Yes it did; that was always the case. There's no requirement that art be produced by people who need the money.

[lmm]

When the only way to hear a symphony was to hire an orchestra to play it every time, it was easy for a musician to make a living playing symphonies. Now that you can record one playthrough once and reproduce it for free, it's much harder - supply goes up, so the price goes down.

Substitute playing music for your creative endeavour of choice.

[rjaco31]

That's bullshit. Most of the greatest music compositors through History were broke as shit, even when being famous while being alive.