Technology does TOO change the rules of business.

On Oct 23, 2010, at 7:53 AM, [email protected] wrote:
> The basis of your argument on this is that the technology changes the rules of business. I see no evidence this is so.

Of course it does. When radio came into the picture, despite almost everyone's wishes to the contrary, it was only a matter of time before people started playing records over the radio and the rules of business changed. Hence ASCAP, and later BMI (which was the cause of the ascent of rock-and-roll, ASCAP having signed up all of Tin Pan Alley forcing BMI to search afield for marketable talent). Very few record labels say "not licensed for public performance" on them any more.

When home video tapes came into the picture, the rules of business changed. Despite the studio's longstanding traditional of licensing according to audience size and number of performances, and forcing people to rent a "B" picture in order to get an "A" picture, they were forced to accept the fact that (then-current technology) gave them no way of knowing how many people were in the room or how often the tape would be played.

As you say, these conflicts arise continually. There's nothing new about the conflicts. In the past, the result was always that the conflict was resolved by the publishers acknowledging that the rules had changed and reaching some compromise or accommodation. Now, they have the illusion that digital restrictions have finally given them absolute power and they have become obdurate. Eventually they will find that change is the irresistible force and they are not the immovable object.

The railroads followed one set of rules of business, then the Grangers made a fuss and the Supreme Court _ruled_ that the states had a right to regulate the railroads and public utilities commissions arose and the railroad's _rules_ of doing business changed.

If you want to define the term "rules of business" in some fundamental-things-apply-as-time-goes-by way then OK, but to make a definition so broad that the Pony Express and the mobile phone follow "the same rules of business" (must earn a profit, etc.) is to render it meaningless.


> To give an Old Testament quote: there is nothing new under the sun.

That's from the same guy who said "of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh!"



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