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The market withholds food when they tell you to pay first before taking it home. The same is fair for an author. You don't need to fear paywalls. You're capabl

The market withholds food when they tell you to pay first before taking it home. The same is fair for an author. You don't need to fear paywalls. You're capable of learning and creating the same knowledge as any other person.

MacsHeadroom 7y ago
I don't fear paywalls. I create, fund, and advocate for circumvention tools because withholding something of value that is instantly copyable and virtually free to share is morally abhorrent. It's your right to withhold information just as it would be your right to withhold water if you had the only well in town. Likewise it's my right to use information to liberate withheld information just as it would be my right to provide well digging tools to your parched neighbors. The only difference is that I'm thinking of what is best for everyone and you're thinking only of yourself. That's your right; take the low road if it makes you happy.
- unityByFreedom 7y ago
  > It's your right to withhold information just as it would be your right to withhold water if you had the only well in town Information is like the food in my example, not the "only water supply" in yours. Leibniz and Newton independently developed calculus, for example. > you're thinking only of yourself. That's your right; take the low road if it makes you happy. It's not selfish to be compensated for your work. Authors can choose themselves whether they want to make some of their work freely available, just as a market can give away some food or not.
  - saagarjha 7y ago
    > It's not selfish to be compensated for your work. As far as I'm aware, authors get very little of the compensation for the work they're doing. > Authors can choose themselves whether they want to make some of their work freely available, just as a market can give away some food or not. Not if the established procedure for publishing is a journal.
    - unityByFreedom 7y ago
      Author compensation depends on the author and their ability to strike a good deal for themselves, just like the rest of us when we apply for jobs, they do it per piece of work. As for journals, I understand the distaste academics have for these. This thread was about whether all published information should be free, not just journals.
matheusmoreira 7y ago
> The market withholds food when they tell you to pay first before taking it home. The same is fair for an author. Food is finite. When you buy material goods, you subtract from the seller's supply of goods and add to your own. It's impossible to create new goods out of nothing. Since there isn't enough for everyone, an economy naturally arises. Information is infinite. Copying and transmitting data is not only trivial, it is natural. That's why people came up with ways to create artificial scarcity. The only cost associated with human knowledge and art is that of creating it. After it's created, information costs $0. All data, all files on a computer, they're essentially just really big numbers that humanity happened to discover. Once the number is known, modern computers make it possible to copy and transmit it for almost $0. Paywalls? Only one person needs to pay in order to get copy and distribute it to everyone else. Nobody is saying creators shouldn't be compensated. We're saying they need a new business model. It's the 21st century. You no longer need huge printing presses in order to make copies of something at scale. It's as easy as copy paste.
- unityByFreedom 7y ago
  > Information is infinite Published material is not infinite, nor is an author's time. Information is infinite if you definite it to mean all information, but that is not the context here. The context here is published work.
  - matheusmoreira 7y ago
    > Published material is not infinite Sci-Hub proves otherwise. > nor is an author's time. True.
  - enriquto 7y ago
    Man, you are obnoxious. Do you understand that we authors of these damn papers get fuckall from their publication? The publication industry is an extortion racket.
    - unityByFreedom 7y ago
      I said above I understand the hatred for academic journals. This thread is about whether all knowledge by otherwise uncompensated creators should be available for free.

MacsHeadroom 7y ago

I don't fear paywalls. I create, fund, and advocate for circumvention tools because withholding something of value that is instantly copyable and virtually free to share is morally abhorrent. It's your right to withhold information just as it would be your right to withhold water if you had the only well in town. Likewise it's my right to use information to liberate withheld information just as it would be my right to provide well digging tools to your parched neighbors. The only difference is that I'm thinking of what is best for everyone and you're thinking only of yourself. That's your right; take the low road if it makes you happy.

unityByFreedom 7y ago
> It's your right to withhold information just as it would be your right to withhold water if you had the only well in town Information is like the food in my example, not the "only water supply" in yours. Leibniz and Newton independently developed calculus, for example. > you're thinking only of yourself. That's your right; take the low road if it makes you happy. It's not selfish to be compensated for your work. Authors can choose themselves whether they want to make some of their work freely available, just as a market can give away some food or not.
- saagarjha 7y ago
  > It's not selfish to be compensated for your work. As far as I'm aware, authors get very little of the compensation for the work they're doing. > Authors can choose themselves whether they want to make some of their work freely available, just as a market can give away some food or not. Not if the established procedure for publishing is a journal.
  - unityByFreedom 7y ago
    Author compensation depends on the author and their ability to strike a good deal for themselves, just like the rest of us when we apply for jobs, they do it per piece of work. As for journals, I understand the distaste academics have for these. This thread was about whether all published information should be free, not just journals.

matheusmoreira 7y ago

> The market withholds food when they tell you to pay first before taking it home. The same is fair for an author. Food is finite. When you buy material goods, you subtract from the seller's supply of goods and add to your own. It's impossible to create new goods out of nothing. Since there isn't enough for everyone, an economy naturally arises. Information is infinite. Copying and transmitting data is not only trivial, it is natural. That's why people came up with ways to create artificial scarcity. The only cost associated with human knowledge and art is that of creating it. After it's created, information costs $0. All data, all files on a computer, they're essentially just really big numbers that humanity happened to discover. Once the number is known, modern computers make it possible to copy and transmit it for almost $0. Paywalls? Only one person needs to pay in order to get copy and distribute it to everyone else. Nobody is saying creators shouldn't be compensated. We're saying they need a new business model. It's the 21st century. You no longer need huge printing presses in order to make copies of something at scale. It's as easy as copy paste.

unityByFreedom 7y ago
> Information is infinite Published material is not infinite, nor is an author's time. Information is infinite if you definite it to mean all information, but that is not the context here. The context here is published work.
- matheusmoreira 7y ago
  > Published material is not infinite Sci-Hub proves otherwise. > nor is an author's time. True.
- enriquto 7y ago
  Man, you are obnoxious. Do you understand that we authors of these damn papers get fuckall from their publication? The publication industry is an extortion racket.
  - unityByFreedom 7y ago
    I said above I understand the hatred for academic journals. This thread is about whether all knowledge by otherwise uncompensated creators should be available for free.