On Mon, 13 May 2002, Steve Schear wrote:
> I suspect that one of the things the major labels really fear is the > increasing market share of the independents. Two decades ago the > independents had a palter 10-15% penetration. Now I've heard it greater > than 25%. This is really what's on their minds. If so they are worrying about the wrong thing. The record companies, credit card companies, book publishes/stores and a lot(!) of other middle men will be out of business and dinosaurs in another 10 to 15 years. The simple change in the network to a truly distributed system where any node and talk to any other node using high bandwidth with (near) universal access is going to kick their predatory/parasitic asses. They might actually have to learn to make an honest living solving other peoples problems. They need to be taking their funds, and instead of spending it on law suites and a business/IP model that is dead, dead, dead; and invest it in technology companies that show great promise in bringing the 'grid' computing paradigm to fruition sooner (rather than later). Once that technology comes into play, people will buy anything digitizale directly from the source. No distribution channels, no loans, no nothing. Just 1:1 (with the individual parties banks acting as auditors of the transaction until it is clear both parties are satisfied). Government and Economics are -technologies-, technologies that stem from the specialization (and hence compartmentalization) required to get to a point where technology is advanced enough (and ubiquitous enough) so that each person can take care of themselves all by themselves. -- ____________________________________________________________________ The law is applied philosophy and a philosphical system is only as valid as its first principles. James Patrick Kelly - "Wildlife" [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.ssz.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.open-forge.org --------------------------------------------------------------------