4 ms·
Microeconomic models deal with negligible marginal cost products as a matter of routine. I don't mean to be rude, but you've been taking the wrong economics cou
by cynicalkane 14y ago
Microeconomic models deal with negligible marginal cost products as a matter of routine. I don't mean to be rude, but you've been taking the wrong economics courses.
Another poster identified the issue: decentralized distribution, not low cost of copy, is the sea change. In past times governments responded to low cost of copy by legislating copyright. Now there's no practical way to centralize distribution of convenient copies of data.
Honestly, nerds fantasize about a world where all data is free, but information creators just respond by making their data inconvenient to obtain. Institutions of content creation have a high demand product; economically there's no reason to expect them to roll over and give up on making money.
- groby_b 14y agoThat might well be - thankfully, nobody pays me for my economics expertise :) What I meant by my statement is that the marginal cost is near-zero for everybody. I've just learned that a better way to say that is "decentralized distribution". I do appreciate you clarifying this. (I really do. It's rather hard to say "thank you" over the Internet without coming across as the most sarcastic person in existence) And I don't expect content creators to roll over, but I do expect to see a significant shift in the industry. Because no matter how inconvenient the access to the first copy is, the second one is free. At some point, that'll need to be factored in, because it can't be prevented.
- altcognito 14y agoNerds don't just fantasize about data being free. They fantasize about reducing the cost of manufacturing anything, including new intellectual content to zero. (or at least to some minimal amount of energy expediture) And no, your Micro-economic models do not deal with that, but that's ok, because it's a fantasy. Right?
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]