Archive for June, 2006
ip and free information June 5th, 2006
and this is where the plot thickens.
“open-source” services such as wikipedia and answers.com allow greater access to ideas and opinions; while aggregators such as Google’s Google News service give people access to breaking news.
both these movements contradict (in fact, they existed before) the new business models being applied by traditional media sources to their services. examples would be websites of newspapers such as the New York Times, or magazines such as The Economist, or financial papers such as the Wall Street Journal or Financial Times who all now charge money per article read or monthly fees for those wanting to read articles.
the theory is that the credibility developed by the brand (and its superior editorial quality) supercedes the cost that the “consumer” (note: not “reader”) pays for the articles (about 99 cents), in the mind of the consumer.
theoretically though, it fails to take into account the exact “problem” it is meant to address. the assumption that people will pay to not have to go through the millions of pages online to get information forgets that news is available on a variety of media; and the internet itself provides many credible sources for news. such a model therefore relies on the customer being willing to pay more than already fixed costs of a TV News channel subscription, and a newspaper subscription.
and news delivery is just one (if admittedly the major) part of the puzzle. as mentioned earlier; open-source encyclopedias such as wikipedia; or collaborators with traditional and open-source forms such as answers.com both take the battle to the doorsteps of services such as Encarta or the World Book; both of which are limited by their payment models.
that however brings up a whole new question… what CAN you charge money for on the internet? when do you choose to make your service–your work, research and service free, and when do you make people pay for it?–or rather, when CAN you make people pay for a service?
it’s going to be an interesting couple of years as companies attempt to install themselves as leaders in the realm of knowledge online.
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interesting read / the economist June 2nd, 2006
“what’s all the fuss about?”, you ask?
first interesting read i’ve seen on India outside Consulting White Papers.
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on IP and copyrights June 1st, 2006
came across an interesting debate on copyrights.
now historically, my take on copyrights (this is for reproduction of Music and Film; maybe even books, considering they’re the two main things people get tried for in court) has been that while a copyright must be respected; someone purchasing any copyrighted material should theoretically be allowed access to all other forms of the same product.
so for example, if i own a music CD; there should be no restriction on me transferring it onto iTunes and putting it onto my iPod; and the same for films (so the iPod plays them too. yay 
) it seems only fair that anyone buying a copyrighted offering such as music or film should have the right to access the same across all formats over which the offering is transferable and “play-able”
realistically though; DRM software alters that balance. in order to prevent piracy (distribution); DRM prevents conversion, regardless of intent.
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