Disturbing Facts

[PvK]

Well, the SE4 forum does seem like a good place to mention the following concept. Supose you have two civilizations (who don't know of each other). They both develop computer technology like we have today, and both produce lots of useful and entertaining programs and media.

The difference is, that one civilization freely allows sharing all these programs and media. Authorship fraud is not allowed, and authors are rewarded for their work based on the amount of use and praise registered by the customers, through taxes and an official praise registration center.

The other civilization is more like ours. Corporations own and control most development, try to control and enforce duplication and even usage rights, and claim as much of the profits for their stockholders as possible.

Which civilization is going to be more productive and happy? I would say, definitely the first one.

My question is, how to change the basic assumptions. Maybe start with a non-profit organization that would take a membership fee and disburse it to authors whose products were used and praised.

How is this different from a conventional publisher? Well, customers would pay a subscription, and then be able to freely download all of that publisher's products. Electronic duplication and distribution slashes that overhead, and with enough titles, it can become very tempting to Subscribe. In theory, the cost of a subscription could be kept low and affordable, because the multiplied value of being able to use all of the products would mean that many more people would Subscribe than would otherwise buy individual products. The problems are that it probably requires a certain critical mass to succeed, both in terms of amount/quantity of content, and amount of Subscribers.

PvK