In addition, Gladwell fails to recognize other modes of distribution that do
not require a centralized system ala YouTube, and thus do not require the
recovering of the phenomenal bandwidth costs associated with maintaining a
walled garden. Torrents for example offer a wider distribution methods that
passes the cost of distribution (in terms of bandwidth) to the consumer,
effectively eliminating the economical bottleneck that YouTube presents
YouTube in effect, is not a good example of the potentials of new modes
distribution, merely a widely known one. It is still centrally controlled and
administered thus operating in a way that requires a recovery of costs that
simply cannot be obtained directly from the content it serves
Doron Ben Avraham - IT Manager
New Museum Of Contemporary Art
newmuseum.org
> "Free is just another price, and prices are set by individual actors, in
> accordance with the aggregated particulars of marketplace power. "Information
> wants to be free," Anderson tells us, "in the same way that life wants to
> spread and water wants to run downhill." But information can't actually want
> anything, can it? Amazon wants the information in the Dallas paper to be
> free, because that way Amazon makes more money. Why are the self-interested
> motives of powerful companies being elevated to a philosophical principle? "
>
> http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2009/07/06/090706crbo_books_gladwell
>
> Posted by Amalyah Keshet, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
>
Malcolm Gladwell's New Yorker article is certainly worth a read.
His critique of Stewart Brand's famous dictum has a certain merit, but
he is guilty of at least as egregious a categorical error when (in
paragraph 4) he refers to unauthorized copying as "theft". The content
publishing industry has spent a lot of money to propagate the 'theft'
metaphor in attempt to influence public attitudes towards copyright
law, and Gladwell seems to have taken the bait.
William Patry puts it very well in a recent interview
(http://bit.ly/V6hEn) concerning his book "Moral Panics and the
Copyright Wars" when he says:
"My only regret, and this is what much of my book is about, is that in
the case of corporations, what are business issues?are misdescribed?as
moral issues, when in fact they are economic issues. I think we will
reach better economic results if we discuss economic issues honestly."
--
Jeff Doyle
www.openmuseum.org
@jeffdoyle
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End of mcn-l Digest, Vol 50, Issue 1
