Krugman column grossly misinterprets the Grateful Dead

Paul Krugman's recent statement that "...the Grateful Dead, who encouraged people to 
tape live performances because "enough of the people who copy and listen to Grateful 
Dead tapes end up paying for hats, T-shirts and performance tickets" grossly 
misinterprets their strategy because his characterization of it is superficial in the extreme.

In a Nov. 8, 2003 TeBC post, Networker discussed their strategy more insightfully:

> ...John Perry Barlow made much the same point,although not as directly, 
> in "The Economy of Ideas", 
>http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.03/economy.ideas_pr.html 
> As you may know, Mr. Barlow was a lyricist for the Grateful Dead during 
> their heyday. As you may also know, the Grateful Dead permitted, indeed 
> encouraged, concert goers to tape their concerts, understanding that the 
> recordings were never as good as the real thing. They viewed bootleg tapes 
> as just more publicity for their concert tours. As Mr. Barlow states:
> 
> "Thus, listening to a Grateful Dead tape is hardly the same experience as
> attending a Grateful Dead concert. The closer one can get to the headwaters 
> of an informational stream, the better one's chances of finding an accurate
> picture of reality in it."
>
> This observation has real applicability in the e-book market.

To excerpt from some other old TEBC posts on the subject of "information wants to be 
free":

Craig Morehouse, Nov. 3, 2003:
>
> For those of you who don't know, the use of 'free' in that realm means
> "Free as in Free Speech". not "Free as in Free Beer".
>
> Big difference.
>
> If I escape from a cave and cry out "I'm Free, I'm Free", that doesn't
> mean I am available to everyone without cost.

Jim Drew, Nov. 3, 2003:
>
> The most interesting thing I see in that is that the second half of
> the original phrase -- "and information wants to be expensive" -- has
> been dropped, perhaps conveniently...

myself, Nov. 7, 2003:
>
> In this same sense, might one not also say that information "wants" to become
> noise?--a natural tendency of the world because, according to the Second Law
> of Thermodynamics, things tend to proceed from a state of order to a state of
> disorder. Analog information like a book on tape gradually becomes noise to 
> to static,etc. Digital information can become noise due to file corruption, etc., 
> and also due to separation of data from metadata.

If you check Amazon.com, you'll find that, despite all the bootleg copies floating around 
for the past several decades, the reissued CD of the Grateful Dead's album American 
Beauty is currently #619 in Music, #4 in Rock Jam Bands, #28 in Psychedelic Rock and #48 
in Oldies and Retro.  New copies are priced from $7.38 to $28.24 and the cheapest used 
copy is $6.38, not bad considering you can download the MP3 album for $7.99.

While a professionally-produced CD isn't as good as attending a concert used to be, it's 
closer to the headwaters of the information stream that a bootleg copy, and hence has 
demonstrable value in the marketplace.  Recordings of the Grateful Dead's music are 
continuing to bring in what are most likely substantial royalties to its members or their 
heirs long after the performances took place.

John Landahl
InfoStrategist.com
Seattle, WA


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