
All Complex Ecosystems Have Parasites (2005) - Sambdala
http://craphound.com/complexecosystems.txt
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funkwyrm
This particular misconception has been wandering around for a while:

"Simple ecosystems are the goal of proceedings like CARP, the panel that set
out the ruinously high royalties for webcasters. The recording industry set
the rates as high as they did so that the teeming millions of webcasters would
be rendered economically extinct, leaving behind a tiny handful of giant
companies that could be negotiated with around a board room table, rather than
dealt with by blanket legislation."

The recording industry specifically backed a percentage-of-revenue
legislation, and lawmakers took it upon themselves to enact something much
more crippling than even what the RIAA had proposed. Why they did that remains
a mystery; but it was the actions of either corrupt or ignorant lawmakers, not
the "recording industry" that destroyed internet radio.

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kaipakartik
[http://blog.kaipakartik.com/2012/11/all-complex-
ecosystems-h...](http://blog.kaipakartik.com/2012/11/all-complex-ecosystems-
have-parasites.html)

Here is a more readable version of the same
<http://www.readability.com/articles/6tqfeib9>

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jere
Complex or decentralized?

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batgaijin
kaipakartik your account is dead

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JoeAltmaier
Wow, talk about loaded discourse. I got as far as 'toady' before I figured out
it was a rant.

~~~
pfraze
I'm going to try to repeat back the argument:

A system which allows for complexity will evolve in unpredictable ways. Some
economic and security models don't account for the variety, and have tried to
solve the problem by constraining the system using trust & authority tools
(like DRM). This (he purports) is often unsuccessful in its intended purpose,
and the ecosystem's lack of unintended consequences removes its capacity to
change.

I think it's an interesting argument, though he does let his feelings toward
media companies color it. What it makes me think about is the negative
consequence of over-engineering; maybe sometimes it's better to leave some
unanswered questions.

