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> The cost of any widely available item will trend towards its marginal cost. This is really the problem that copyright was meant to address in the first place
by wwweston 12y ago
> The cost of any widely available item will trend towards its marginal cost.
This is really the problem that copyright was meant to address in the first place -- once industrialized publishing hit, marginal cost of production was always cheap compared to investment required to produce the first work. Digital changes the degree but not the character of the problem.
Of course, that's really only half the equation.
> You may lament this fact, but it is the reality.
"Reality" is a pretty fluid concept when you're talking about money, markets, or value, all of which are largely cultural concepts.
It's arguably accurate to say that right now we're tending towards a culture where people don't pay for digital copies of media. That doesn't make it the only possible reality.
- teddyh 12y ago> […] marginal cost of production was always cheap […] Yes, but it wasn’t zero, like digital copying is today. > Reality" is a pretty fluid concept […] Sure, there are laws like Copyright which change the normal market forces, just like any other country can have laws changing society. But the principle, the trend for the cost towards zero, is the same, Copyright notwithstanding. Copyright sort-of worked when the marginal cost was small but non-zero, but when it actually hits too-cheap-to-meter zero, then it starts being ridiculous. > […] culture where people don't pay for digital copies of media. This isn’t a “cultural” thing. It’s a “normal market forces” thing, which was my point. If it were a cultural thing, we could influence culture to turn the tide and actually affect things. But it isn’t, so we can’t.