Killing off the little guy (this time it's internet radio)

[MelchyBeau]

Well, isn't that a major flaw of AC? Why dump billions into R&D when another company can just buy your product reverse engineer it, use those plans to make profit?

[WillMagic]

Azdesertrat,

and good riddance to them as well.

[WillMagic]

[ QUOTE ]
Well, isn't that a major flaw of AC? Why dump billions into R&D when another company can just buy your product reverse engineer it, use those plans to make profit?

[/ QUOTE ]

Sure, it's one of the few. It's mitigated by the fact that R+D will cost much much less when there isn't a huge FDA burden on these companies that are making the drugs, and further there's nothing that prohibits NDA's from being enforced. (You sign a contract saying you will not disclose information, you disclose it, you can be sued for violating a contract.)

But yeah, AC ain't perfect. Just a hell of a lot better than what we've got, and more stable than minarchy.

[AzDesertRat]

[ QUOTE ]
Azdesertrat,

and good riddance to them as well.

[/ QUOTE ]

Amen

Hopefully they don't seek additional protections and get them from Congress either. That's what they have had to resort to lately.

[Phil153]

[ QUOTE ]
I reject the bolded part of the claim. I don't think intellectual property and copyrights will stand up in an AC world, because I think they are way too expensive to enforce if you can't externalize the costs of enforcement on to other people (in this case taxpayers.) Fundamentally music and other intellectualy property is not scarce, and thus cannot fall under property rights.

[/ QUOTE ]
Fair enough. The economic problems with this model are a another thread, but your ideas are internally consistent. I'm interested if Nielso has the same ideas?

[WillMagic]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Azdesertrat,

and good riddance to them as well.

[/ QUOTE ]

Amen

Hopefully they don't seek additional protections and get them from Congress either. That's what they have had to resort to lately.

[/ QUOTE ]

exactly. Phil, this is precisely what I'm talking about. RIAA relies on the government to enforce whatever royalty/penalties they decide to implement. Without government externalizing the costs of enforcement on the taxpayers RIAA couldn't afford it.

edit: because, of course, there are millions upon millions of "violators."

[Case Closed]

[ QUOTE ]
Too bad the MPAA and RIAA have changed the "fair use" standards and now have to resort to extortion and blackmail. I think they are trying to force everyone towards piracy, because they want to control the content on the web. They will start crying on how much money they have lost due to piracy and stop from admitting that they are putting out inferior products.

DRM will be either the death of the RIAA or the whole industry---remember Sony's attempt to protect its music last year.

[/ QUOTE ]

DRM?

Edit: I found it, but why is this the death or the RIAA?

[WillMagic]

DRM has turned many former purchasers of online music into downloaders of music, including myself. I actually have a personal preference to see the artists get paid when I listen to their song - but it's nothing more than that, just a preference. So I used Itunes music store for a while. But then I tried to change computers. HOLY COW it is incredibly restrictive on how you can use your music. Only five computers are allowed to play it, you can't move music off your ipod and on to the computer...

It's fundamentally an inferior product to what you can get for free. DRM has pushed many many people into allofmp3, bittorr***, what have you, simply because the music you get from downloading is...better.

[Skidoo]

[ QUOTE ]
RIAA relies on the government to enforce whatever royalty/penalties they decide to implement. Without government externalizing the costs of enforcement on the taxpayers RIAA couldn't afford it.


[/ QUOTE ]

Government exercises its enforcement powers on behalf of the people. Why shouldn't the people pay for it?

[AzDesertRat]

If you pi$$ off people enough, they will stop buying it. There is also the distribution channel---how do you get people to buy music, when they aren't able to hear or sample what's out there? If they pull any stunts like being able to pry in your computer and stuff like that, what group of people do you expect to keep buying music legitimately

If businesses are left on their own to run or rot, many more will rot than run, and that's just way the world is. When companies or industries are protected unjustifiably to protect them from their own failures, then there is complacency and business will fail for much longer. There was an earlier thread by someone here who posted on some of my favorite topics like the tariffs on sugar, etc.