[Cdn-DMCA] TPM and the End User

[mskala at ansuz.sooke.bc.ca]

On Tue, 9 Apr 2002, Michael Richardson wrote:
>   A has population four, produces four songs.

> For A: exports 4 songs * 2 countries -> 8 songs

Where did those 8 songs come from?  You said above that A produced four.

One song can be exported twice, and it's still the same song.  If you're
exporting them by pressing CDs then you will have to ship twice as many
atoms, and if you're exporting them over a network then you (or someone)
will have to pay for the traffic twice, but with cheap network
transmission the significant cost is in making the song, not in shipping
it.  Although you can (and do, in the quotes I snipped) argue that the
"export" happens twice, most of the cost only has to be paid *once*.  
Everyone can benefit from a lot more data than the average amount anyone
produces.

Yes, I'm playing a semantic game with the meaning of "export" here, and if
you want to try to define that word in a way that renders my statement
false, I can't stop you.  My important point is that by far the biggest
costs in producing music (or any other form of "content") are paid *per
song* instead of *per copy of a song*.  The usefulness or value of the
content increases with the number of copies, while the cost doesn't
increase, or increases much more slowly.  Every time someone copies a
song, the total amount of value increases.  Value is not globally
conserved.
-- 
Matthew Skala
mskala at ansuz.sooke.bc.ca                    Embrace and defend.
http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/

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