Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

The art itself has value even if all the copies are equally "original", interchangeable, and superabundant.

Put another way: there may not be any change in value between one copy and two copies, but there is a big difference between one copy and zero copies.




Of course. At zero copies, the art does not exist. At one copy, it exists. The artist's job is to generate that initial copy. This is what all human intellectual work boils down to: discovering data, numbers whose bits are set just right.

Once that initial copy is found, any number of copies can be created and distributed at zero cost. Value is determined by supply and demand. If supply is infinite, value must be zero no matter what the demand is.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: