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6) We've made laws that greatly restrict our abilities to use these magical new technologies in their most productive ways. Google Books was the canary in the

by breck 5y ago

6) We've made laws that greatly restrict our abilities to use these magical new technologies in their most productive ways. Google Books was the canary in the coal mine. Remember when Google was going to organize all the world's information and make it accessible and useful? Then the copyright lobby attacked, and over a decade later that project (which is so obviously a quantum leap in terms of what it could do for human productivity) remains on pause (or permanently abandoned? not sure). People today have access to an endless supply of information noise. If you want quality signal, it's still a trickle. All the best Internet ideas now are not getting built because of copyright law.

egypturnash 5y ago
And the problem here is that writing a good book on a thing is something that takes time and effort. Usually enough that it's a full-time or part-time job. While I am no fan of the copyright maximalism that Disney and other corporations employing armies of people doing work-for-hire have turned copyright law into, I am also a person eking out a living as an artist, and I would like to be able to say "please don't use this thing I made to promote viewpoints inimical to my existence, please don't sell copies of this thing I made without asking my permission first and working out licensing terms", and even "please don't reproduce this thing at all without giving me some money". And I would also like to continue to make enough money off of my work for my bills to be paid. I've found that Patreon's enabling me to give a lot of stuff away, but if I wanted to make some of my work a scarce good, that's a choice I'd prefer to be able to enforce in the courts. Or perhaps more succinctly: if you want information to be free, you need to figure out how to free its gatherers, tenders, and creators from worrying about their bills. If you think you have a better idea for freeing information-creators from worrying about their finances than "Kickstarter/Patreon except XXX" or "put ads on all the things", then you might have a project worth chasing.
pas 5y ago
> which is so obviously a quantum leap in terms of what it could do for human productivity that's a very strong claim. and it's very likely, unfortunately, false. we have the great classics all available for free in a multitude of formats. a lot of works slowly but surely mature into the public domain each year, yet there's no discernible productivity growth based on the availability of books. also, this sadly goes for research papers too. sure, fuck Elsevier and the whole paper mill industry, but the limiting factor is expertise, tenured spots, academic integrity. (see the replicability crisis in psychology, in particular how the many times the whole scientific enterprise is backwards: https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2011/01/11/one_more_time_o/ https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2011/01/11/one_more_t... and https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2016/09/21/what-has-happened-down-here-is-the-winds-have-changed/ https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2016/09/21/what-has-h... )

by breck 5y ago

egypturnash 5y ago

And the problem here is that writing a good book on a thing is something that takes time and effort. Usually enough that it's a full-time or part-time job. While I am no fan of the copyright maximalism that Disney and other corporations employing armies of people doing work-for-hire have turned copyright law into, I am also a person eking out a living as an artist, and I would like to be able to say "please don't use this thing I made to promote viewpoints inimical to my existence, please don't sell copies of this thing I made without asking my permission first and working out licensing terms", and even "please don't reproduce this thing at all without giving me some money". And I would also like to continue to make enough money off of my work for my bills to be paid. I've found that Patreon's enabling me to give a lot of stuff away, but if I wanted to make some of my work a scarce good, that's a choice I'd prefer to be able to enforce in the courts. Or perhaps more succinctly: if you want information to be free, you need to figure out how to free its gatherers, tenders, and creators from worrying about their bills. If you think you have a better idea for freeing information-creators from worrying about their finances than "Kickstarter/Patreon except XXX" or "put ads on all the things", then you might have a project worth chasing.

pas 5y ago

> which is so obviously a quantum leap in terms of what it could do for human productivity that's a very strong claim. and it's very likely, unfortunately, false. we have the great classics all available for free in a multitude of formats. a lot of works slowly but surely mature into the public domain each year, yet there's no discernible productivity growth based on the availability of books. also, this sadly goes for research papers too. sure, fuck Elsevier and the whole paper mill industry, but the limiting factor is expertise, tenured spots, academic integrity. (see the replicability crisis in psychology, in particular how the many times the whole scientific enterprise is backwards: https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2011/01/11/one_more_time_o/ https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2011/01/11/one_more_t... and https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2016/09/21/what-has-happened-down-here-is-the-winds-have-changed/ https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2016/09/21/what-has-h... )