If you are tired of hearing the saw about information wanting to be free, Malcolm Gladwell has a great book review in a recent New Yorker issue that sets about to debunk the myth. The book itself, Free: The Future of a Radical Price, by Chris Anderson of The Long Tail fame, makes the case that the scale economies brought about by technological progress are inexorably driving down the market price of ideas, and all things made of ideas, to zero. Gladwell does a pretty nice job of picking this thesis apart, with nice tidbits like this one:
Worth a look.
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1. Posted by Evolution Media on July 17, 2009 @ 16:33 | Permalink
Ideas are not diminished in value by the fact that many of them will be freely proliferated. The best ideas will always attract money. To make money on intellectual products, you will have to hold back the best stuff, giving away a lot of WIPs and imperfect works. People will always pay for premium content.
2. Posted by Fred Tung on July 18, 2009 @ 9:18 | Permalink
I agree. See TechDirt:
http://techdirt.com/articles/20090701/0422125421.shtml
for other interesting commentary.
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