Comments on: 09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0, Swarms, Outrage, and the socialbookmarkosphere

By: simplyjat

simplyjat — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Do you understand that the color scheme used on the page makes it unreadable?

By: Dan tdaxp

Dan tdaxp — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Is anyone else having simplyjat's problem? For me, the page is black-text-on-white-background in both IE and Firefox.

(My guess is that simplyjat didn't wait for the page to load, or something timed out, but I can't be sure.)

By: TDL

TDL — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

ry,
Your interpretation is that "intellectual property" drives innovation, however, this might not be an accurate view. Much of the great inventions in history were done with out I.P. protections. If you are speaking of new drugs, much of the cost stems from the heavy regulation (and much of that regulation is in the efficacy trials as opposed to testing for toxicity.) For the pharma issues, Alex Tabarrok (economist, GMU) has written extensively on the topic; try here http://www.independent.org/aboutus/person_detail.asp?id=505 and here http://www.fdareview.org/

For I.P. in general, the patent lawyer Stephen Kinsella has written quite a bit arguing against patents and "Intellectual Property". Try these links: http://www.mises.org/studyguide.aspx?action=author&Id=301 and http://www.kinsellalaw.com/index.php

Regards,
TDL

By: ry

ry — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I dunno Dan. I'm real leary of this whole 'hijack the content' movement. I've actually read the license agreement that scrolls up on VHS tapes and on my DVDs. I don't own the content. I've paid a one time fee for rental of it, and that's it.

I find that most people that're torrenting and ripping stuff find it to be all plus, until it hits them in the pocketbook. I don't think people will make your beloved Elder Scrolls, with million dollar production costs, unless there's a payoff some multiple of production cost. And the new 'revolution', as techcrunch is calling it, is going to cut the multiple below critical.

same is happening in pharma and the call for ending ownership. People aren't going to stay in it, with the mental and emotional and time suck that research and development is, if there isn't that $60k/yr paycheck attached. Sure, lots of it is poor decisions(do we need another psycho tropic or marital aide? not really), but you're going to need us for stuff like resistant microbes. And we're not going to be there for altruism.

Same for content makers. Why spend 200million to make a blockbuster when you're only going to make that much back, MAYBE, since people can rip it and give it to their friends for pennies?

By: Dan tdaxp

Dan tdaxp — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

ry,

I used to work as a programmer in the content-creation company, and one of my tasks was to make our demonstration product unusable unless the user bought a license. It was a good job, I liked it, and I would have done the same.

When it comes to MPAA copy protection, there's the added factor that the protection only needs to be broken once, and that the protection hurts the least savvy customers the most. But that's mostly a side issue.

The Constitution allows these monopolies to exist for a limited time to advance progress -- they are a necessary evil, like taxation. Taxes and intellectual monopolies are systematic ways of depriving individuals and groups of property. They deprive others of wealth and create artificial revenue streams... but, they are necessary. I don't advocate the abolition of taxes or the abolition of intellectual monopolies. But they are in the same realm of good as life, liberty, or property.

That said, the post's main goal was to demonstrate how outrage and swarming increasingly works together online. And it has.. these social bookmark service -- "that digg or delicious thing" -- which catch even extremely intelligent and well-read bloggers unaware [1], managed to reverse digg's policy.. there's now even a Financial Times article [2] (found on the Drudge Report's front page) about it.

TDL,

Thanks for the links!

[1] http://zenpundit.blogspot.com/2007/05/six-degrees-of-participation-tech-guru.html
[2] http://www.ft.com/cms/s/08b10610-f8cd-11db-a940-000b5df10621.html