

Why Content Is a Public Good - pwpwp
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/04/why-content-is-a-public-good.html

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GavinB
Now that content is a pure public good, there are only a few options to
support its creation.

1\. Draconian legislative enforcement.

2\. Public funding

3\. Charitable fundraising (100k true fans model)

4\. Production by hobbyists

5\. Charging for extreme convenience (this makes DRM seem pretty dumb.)

6\. Giving it away and making it back in ancillary ways (i.e. endorsements,
paid speaking engagements, live shows etc)

Make no mistake, the Amanda Palmer model is workable only for those who are
great at charitable fundraising. Because that's what she's doing. I'm glad it
works for her, but most artists aren't brilliant marketers.

Frankly, none of the available options look all that great. Hopefully an "all
of the above" cocktail will work out okay in the near term.

~~~
fexl
A friend of mine named Robert Hettinga has long championed the concept of
"recursive auctions." The first copy of a piece of information is the most
valuable. Subsequent copies are less valuable. Eventually the copies lose all
novelty and reach a value of zero, or even a negative value because they
occupy space which could otherwise store more valuable information.

The original producer of information auctions the first copy to the highest
bidder. Anyone who buys a copy _owns_ that copy, and I mean ownership in the
strong sense of having an exclusive right of use or disposal. In particular,
the owner has the right to sell a copy of his property to other bidders. The
price of subsequent copies will tend to decline, though not always.

Owners of information may thus recoup or exceed their original cost basis by
selling copies of their property.

Note well that when I say you own a _copy_ of some information, I mean
precisely a _physical_ copy -- a specific pattern of subatomic particles in
your physical possession. I am not talking about ownership of "abstract
information" or "ideas." I am talking pure physics here.

Some producers of information will choose not to sell it, but will instead
profit from it in other ways. This is called a "trade secret." (Examples: the
formulas for Coca Cola and KFC.)

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fexl
I'm rather fond of closed systems, invitation-only, where even basic usage is
not free (example <https://loom.cc>). These are private goods, quietly
laboring in happy obscurity.

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ZeroGravitas
I've not read this yet, but I searched for the word "software" and didn't find
it so I'll point out that Free and Open Source Software is also a "Public
Good" in economics terms. Any piratable software probably counts too for the
same reasons outlined for content.

