Re: Neat summary of Google strategy

On Tue, 9 Jun 2009, joseph harris wrote:

> Presumably the fanatics are making the seismic shifts! ;-)

For now, they are the fanatics.  Later?


Ran across this article today, from 2003, that suggests this has 
all happened before.

"Suing Your Customers: A Winning Business Strategy?"

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=863&specialid=86

It relates how when Henry Ford introduced low-priced mass 
manufactured cars, he was opposed by the existing car producers 
who made high priced custom works for rich customers. They tried 
having an intellectual property right in automobiles and 
preventing Ford from being licensed.

At one point they sued people who purchased Fords for buying 
unlicensed cars.

This did not go over well with the car-buying public.

So - do people in the book industry see themselves as producing 
high priced custom works, or do they see themselves as producing 
books that are "any colour you want as long as it is black"?

I know it's nowhere near a great analogy, but perhaps thinking 
about the question may still be enlightening.


: chris smith ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
: nihil tam munitum quod non expugnari pecunia possit - cicero :


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