From the Age of Scarcity to the Age of Abundance

[TankGirl]

InfoAnarchy's erik has written a great essay Into the Age of Abundance, focusing particularly on what has happened and is happening in p2p. IMO he cuts right into the core of the content industries vs. people controversy. The technology is quickly taking us into the Age of Digital Abundance, and the old scarcity-based industries are shaking as their business and operative models are being challenged. The unlucky Napster was one of the first heralds of the coming good, giving millions a taste of what digital abundance can mean.

A good read, don't miss it!

Perhaps one of the biggest evils that government-sponsored capitalism produces is artificial scarcity. Effective drugs for treating AIDS and other deadly diseases can be produced and distributed cheaply, but they aren't. Instead, scarcity is maintained by enforcing patents internationally. Similarly, scientific and cultural information could be easily archived and distributed for free to everyone, everywhere. Instead, the "content industry", from music to movie to book publishers, is trying to maintain (and increase) scarcity by lobbying for mandatory copy prevention mechanisms, flooding the market with incompatible storage devices, and demanding harsh punishment for the millions who violate its idea of "intellectual property".

The war on (some) drugs, primarily fought by the United States, is currently the biggest motor of the booming prison industry, and has led to more death and suffering than the drugs it pretends to fight. But if the billion-dollar-heavy oligarchy of content producers has its way, the ongoing war on sharing may well put thousands of "pirates" of all ages behind bars. The coming information economy with its lack of scarcity is shaking the very foundation of capitalism (or at least perceived that way), and the old industries aren't willing to adapt -- they'd rather keep us all in chains to preserve their empires. They seek power and control, not progress.

- tg

[theflaco]

Presidential election scandal notwithstanding, the politicians that actually are elected typically represent the interests of those who paid them. Laws demanded by the content industry, like the CBDTPA and the Berman bill, were bought and paid for by -- the content industry. It would be naive to assume that this kind of plutocratic politics only applies to the copyright problem. The oil and arms industry, the pharmaceutical and insurance companies, the car and fruit corporations, they all have their own powerful lobby groups and decide real life politics. It is no coincidence that all members of the Bush administration have heavy ties to big name corporations.

Thanks for the link TankGirl!
I agreed:
A good read!

theflaco

[SA_Dave]

I agree that it's a good article. It is a bit long though!

If you haven't been keeping up with p2p news, it's the best place to begin. There are many interesting analogies used in the article, and I think it's important that politics & the future plans of M$ are also mentioned. I believe that the only way that the RIAA & MPAA can succeed is if people become too complacent about Microsoft. Many people are naive or think that there's nothing they can do about it. If they don't investigate alternatives en masse, as the article suggests, then it may be too late when they finally do feel the effects of MS's continued violation of anti-trust laws!

Their plans for .NET are alarming enough - they intend to micro-manage the internet, you'll have to pay to access your own data & pay to use their products on a monthly basis! TCPA/Palladium is also very disturbing & is an extension of the .NET plan to dominate the internet & kill open-source (and p2p/cracking) by imbedding drm encryption in the very hardware that makes linux so popular, accessible & cheap! Never mind the fact that windows is based on 10 year-old technology (stolen to begin with) which is full of holes and will continue to be plagued by virii & the likes into the future. And did you read about UCITA, the CDBTPA & Microsoft's private-data-gathering tactics?

That thing about the twelve-pack of cokes had me

[multi]

that ones definitly going to the printer..