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The problem is not companies that are "profit mongering" (whatever that means). It's companies with obsolete business models that are willing to destroy the mo
by pg 17y ago
The problem is not companies that are "profit mongering" (whatever that means). It's companies with obsolete business models that are willing to destroy the more dynamic parts of the economy in their fall.
- amichail 17y agoBut won't much stronger copyright enforcement allow these companies to survive?
- tumult 17y agoTemporarily, it will allow certain parts of these established corporations to continue with their current model and still have some sort of revenue. Eventually, they will die. Whether or not something like ACTA will prolong or hasten their death (due to backlash) I'm unsure.
- pg 17y agoHistory doesn't offer much encouragement. New technology is often opposed by existing interests that are threatened by it, but I can't think of a lot of examples where they've succeeded in holding it back for a significant time.
- billswift 17y agoJapan retreated from the gun (and the outside world) for several centuries. Without an outside world to break in, they might still be there.
- johnaspden 17y agoAnd China put the brakes on all innovation.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- eru 17y agoMuch of Europe shies away from a lot of genetic manipulation.
- netcan 17y agoIn some cases, the shift to digital content has shaken business models in a way that is not recoverable and has nothing to do with the enforcement of copyright. Newspapers are mostly examples of this. The old world of media had a price for each viewer/reader of various mediums. The new world of media also has a price too and the old price doesn't apply. Readers are now usually worth substantially less then they were. An online news impression is worth less than a print one. In parallel, the democratisation of the web has created additional competition that has taken away some eyeballs, especially in the juicy parts of the business (eg classifieds). The effect of aggregators as competitors is an example of the type of effect that hurts them and is related to copyright somehow. This last is a very small & insignificant part of why they are failing. In some cases, copyright enforcement might theoretically recover some or all of their revenues. Music is an example of this. If people couldn't pirate music, they would probably buy more of it. The move to digital probably affects sales somehow, but it is not necessarily negative. Film, TV, Books etc. are also examples of these cases. The first type of company has business models made obsolete by technological & cultural changes. The second kind have business models that fail because the lost the ability to enforce copyright. Companies of the first kind usually think that they are of the second. Both types of companies would be happy if the Internet just went away.
- regularfry 17y agoAt what cost? Of course you can dictate that anything MUST survive by fiat if you want, but when does it stop being worth it? They're imposing quite a heavy inefficiency on an expanding portion of the economy, for what is, in absolute terms, not that great a benefit. The old-school media companies just don't have that large a turnover, all told. They just have glamour on their side.
- tsally 17y agoI was attempting to get at the destructive themes associated with the phrase "war monger". To be more precise, I was trying to describe companies that don't mind destroying innovation in order to make profit. My language was too loose, but I think we're both coming from the same place.