> >Now, if you want to be royally stupid enough to try to
> >verticalize this process to include all the infrastructure
> >required to distribute the work (i.e. "the entire fiber optic
and
> >satellite industry" (!)), then allow me to tack onto the
'costs'
> >of non-digital distribution: the entire worldwide postal
system,
> >the entire worldwide air freight system, the entire worldwide
> >trucking system, and, oh, since we're talking about air
freight
> >and trucking let's stick in the entire revenues of Boeing and
GM,
> >not to mention what we have to pay all the air traffic
> >controllers...oh, and let's not forget the wear and tear on
> >*highways* for pete's sake--that alone should be worth at
least a
> >few dozen entire satellite systems! Etc. etc. etc.
>
> Greg, you are trying to be sarcastic but you've actually made
the point!
> You have gone a little overboard but lets look at the
realities, stopping
> at a reasonable shared resources public highways level
As if an information network structure *isn't* a shared
resource?!? It's not like the plagiarists have to lay the optic
fiber out of their own pocket, JP!
> Lets forget the abstract crap. Lets say ....
>
> Prince has completely produced his CD on master tape and the
musos have all
> gone home.
> Prince getting his CD to market requires:
> 1. a CD pressing plant
[snip]
> then, any comsumer can walk into a shop and buy Chaos &
> Disorder (track 6 rocks) for $12.
> thats it.
The consumer pays $12 for access to *ONE* copy of *ONE*
collection of information (the Prince CD). For that $12 they
received ONLY the ability to listen to the CD (&, arguably, to
make lousy, noisy copies via analog tape).
> In the digital realm ...
> 6. a sun server
> 7. tech support staff, and accomodation for the
> sun server
> 8. the company Sprint, the company MCI and to a lesser
> extent the company UU-Net.
> 9. All the various ISPs in the world, from sisna to the
> local guys on the corner.
As if none of the above aren't shared resources?!?
> then, any comsumer can connect to their local ISP and
download
> Chaos & Disorder (track 6 rocks) for pennies.
The pennies cost is just the portion of their subscription charge
or electric bill. What the consumer really pays is $30/month
(tops) for access to *INFINITE* copies of *AN ENORMOUS AMOUNT* of
information (the Prince album, plus every other album, photo,
video, image, & text that has been digitized and put on the
network). Not only this, but for that $30/month they also can
reproduce and distribute information themselves (or, let's be
tough on them--an extra $30/month for their own website). I.e.,
not only can they *receive* infinite copies of an enourmous
amount of information, but they can *distribute* their own (or
someone else's) information themselves for that same pennies per
unit.
(Remember, we are 'assuming' a future where bandwidth, processor
speed, & storage capacity technologies have continued on their
immense growth rate.)
So ask yourself this question: in which scenario does information
have more material value? Or, the converse: in which scenario is
information cheaper per unit?
The major flaw in your reasoning is that you rule out "highways"
because they are a shared resource, but you try to sneak in
satellites, Sprint, MCI, SUN servers, & all their associated
support staff as if they are NOT shared resources. (Which they
most certainly are.)
For example, if Warner wants to ship their CDs to the retailer
then *ALL* the distributing costs are coming out of their
pockets; they're not sharing the costs of their trucks with
Virgin, RCA, Atlantic, etc.
If I want to ship information to you over a computer network, the
distributing costs *are* shared by all the network users. For
that matter, I'm sharing the costs of the network with my direct
competitors, just as we would share the cost of highways.
(Probably the only place where the Information Superhighway
metaphor is accurate.) Which is one reason why it costs at bare
minimum several hundred percent *less* to ship the same amount of
information digitally.
All of this is really rather pointless in the discussion of
intellectual property, though. This is the important question:
Given enough computing power, will it be cheaper for an end-
consumer to download digital copies from a network or purchase
physical copies in a store?
If the answer is yes (which I'm convinced it is) then
corporations whose profit depends upon selling the physical
copies are going to have big trouble controlling their market
share...UNLESS the government steps in and tries to prevent,
regulate, or otherwise control the distribution of digital copies
over networks.
I'm fairly sure the gov't will try that (because protecting big
business is a high priority for government), but I'm also fairly
sure it's doomed to failure because the net is designed
specifically to work around attempts to stop the free flow of
information.
-- Greg Ritter gritter@saturn.vcu.edu <--NEW E-MAIL ADDRESS! ritter@urvax.urich.edu http://www.urich.edu/~ritter-- CompLink (a comprehensive resources for Rhetoric & Composition teachers) http://www.urich.edu/~ritter/CompLink.html