Re: Paul Krugman holds forth on the future of publishing

On Jun 9, 2008, at 1:42 PM, Bill Seitz wrote:

> I think you're all mis-understanding the position of the "info wants
> to be free" crowd. They're not saying that they think information
> *should* be price=0, they're saying that given
>
> * it's ultimately impossible to use technology to protect information
> (DRM, etc.)
> * it's ultimately impossible to enforce intellectual property law
> (anonymous super-distribution)
> * there's an explosion in the number of creators
>
> The price of information gets pulled (not pushed) toward 0.
>
> Therefore the sooner you find a new way to get paid, the better off  
> you will be.


I understand the mechanism, but the problem is, when the compensation  
gets pushed to zero, the supply dwindles. People get day jobs. They  
dabble in writing, but seldom actually pull together a novel.

The seminal experience of almost every writer I have ever known who  
made it to the big time was some important person in their life  
telling/asking them when they were going to stop playing around and  
get a real job, that writing was never going to pay off. Yet these  
writers believed in their work, in making it and in the ultimate pay  
off. When there is no pay off, the vast majority of people won't  
write, won't bother to publish, will give in to the pressure from  
their families to "get a real job." End result is that much of the  
creative work that would get produced doesn't.

There's also no reason to polish and polish and polish until you're  
near a work of art if the only result is to release your book into the  
ether without remuneration. I mean, sure, you can double your sales,  
but twice zero is still zero. You'll get a sea of dreck, but without  
the really good stuff.

The system we have is bad, but I'm not sure that I really see a better  
one in what you're offering.

dej
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