Monday, November 26th, 2007

Not All Info Wants To Be Free Anymore

Thanks to Dave Goetsch, who is currently walking the WB picket line, here’s a link to
Jaron Lanier’s change of heart.

To the media monopolists and privatizers-run-amuck, not all information wants to be free. Not anymore… ::

Internet idealists like me have long had an easy answer for creative types — like the striking screenwriters in Hollywood — who feel threatened by the unremunerative nature of our new Eden: stop whining and figure out how to join the party!

That’s the line I spouted when I was part of the birthing celebrations for the Web. I even wrote a manifesto titled “Piracy Is Your Friend.” But I was wrong. We were all wrong.

Like so many in Silicon Valley in the 1990s, I thought the Web would increase business opportunities for writers and artists. Instead they have decreased. Most of the big names in the industry — Google, Facebook, MySpace and increasingly even Apple and Microsoft — are now in the business of assembling content from unpaid Internet users to sell advertising to other Internet users.

There’s an almost religious belief in the Valley that charging for content is bad. The only business plan in sight is ever more advertising. One might ask what will be left to advertise once everyone is aggregated.

How long must creative people wait for the Web’s new wealth to find a path to their doors? A decade is a long enough time that idealism and hope are no longer enough. If there’s one practice technologists ought to embrace, it is the evaluation of empirical results.

To help writers and artists earn a living online, software engineers and Internet evangelists need to exercise the power they hold as designers. Information is free on the Internet because we created the system to be that way.

We could design information systems so that people can pay for content — so that anyone has the chance of becoming a widely read author and yet can also be paid. Information could be universally accessible but on an affordable instead of an absolutely free basis.

People happily pay for content in certain Internet ecosystems, provided the ecosystems are delightful. People love paying for virtual art, clothing and other items in virtual worlds like Second Life, for instance. Something similar is going on for music within the ecosystem of the iPod.

Affordable turns out to be much harder than free when it comes to information technology, but we are smart enough to figure it out. We owe it to ourselves and to our creative friends to acknowledge the negative results of our old idealism. We need to grow up.

posted by Jeff Chang @ 1:08 pm | 4 Comments

4 Responses to “Not All Info Wants To Be Free Anymore”

Freddie Sirmans says:

November 28, 2007 at 7:49 pm

Just browsing the internet. You have a very, very interesting blog.
zane says:

November 29, 2007 at 11:25 am

Typically I agree with Jaron, and I don’t disagree with him entirely in this case. However he’s incorrect in saying: “People love paying for virtual art, clothing and other items in virtual worlds like Second Life, for instance.” Companies just aren’t making money in Second Life.

I think people are interested in buying something virtual during early stages, then quickly regret it later when they realize that something isn’t real. That’s very different from buying music in iTunes, which you then own and can listen to whenever/however you want…
Zentronix says:

November 29, 2007 at 12:55 pm

That’s a really interesting take. I wonder if it harms the larger argument–which is that there needs to be a line drawn when it comes to content creation.

I want to hasten to add that I’m not sure I know yet where the line always gets drawn–the WGA does in their case, and I’m down with them–but I’m certainly tired of seeing rates going down, profits being snatched away from creators, and artists rights being trampled.
zane says:

November 30, 2007 at 5:32 pm

Jeff, I agree with you whole heartedly. I think there’s a difference though between the ‘virtual’ content of Second Life and genuine, creative content (like that created by writers such as yourself, or those in the guild). People want to pay for the latter, but not the former. That’s why I wish Jaron had left that reference out. But largely I agree with the sentiment. And I definitely agree with you about artists’ rights, and content creators getting paid.

Feed Me!

Revolutions

DJ Nu-Mark :: Take Me With You
DJ Nu-Mark remixes the diaspora…party ensues!
El General + Various Artists :: Mish B3eed : Khalas Mixtape V. 1
The crew at Enough Gaddafi bring the most important mixtape of 2011–the street songs that launched the Tunisian & Egyptian Revolutions…
J. Period + Black Thought + John Legend :: Wake Up! Radio mixtape
Remixing the classic LP w/towering contributions from Rakim, Q-Tip + Mayda Del Valle
Lyrics Born :: As U Were
Bright production + winning rhymes in LB’s most accessible set ever
Model Minority :: The Model Minority Report
The SoCal Asian American rap scene that produced FM keeps surprising…
Mogwai :: Hardcore Won't Die But You Will
Dare we call it majestic?
Taura Love Presents :: Picki People Volume One
From LA via Paris with T-Love, the global post-Dilla generation goes for theirs…

Word

Cormac McCarthy :: Blood Meridian
Read this now before Hollywood f*#ks it up.
Dave Tompkins :: How To Wreck A Nice Beach
Book of the decade, nuff said.
Joe Flood :: The Fires
The definitive account of why the Bronx burned
Mark Fischer :: Capitalist Realism
K-Punk’s philosophical manifesto reads like his blog, snappy and compelling. Just replace pop music with post-post-Marxism. Pair with Josh Clover’s 1989 for the full hundred.
Nell Irvin Painter :: The History of White People
Well worth a Glenn Beck rant…and everyone’s scholarly attention
Robin D.G. Kelley :: Thelonious Monk : The Life And Times Of An American Original
Monk as he was meant to be written
Tim Wise :: Colorblind
Wise’s call for a color-conscious agenda in an era of “post-racial” politics is timely
Victor Lavalle :: Big Machine
Victor Lavalle does it again!