Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
I'm back. (And I've had a snack.)
This means that it is wrong, in any sense of the word or concept, to give away that intellectual property without the express permission of the creator. It also means that it is wrong, in the same word or concept, to duplicate or share it without said permission.
Legally, morally or ethically speaking, we would not expect that if we went to a movie in a theatre, we would therefore be entitled to a free DVD of that movie, or of its soundtrack, or even a poster of the hot chick in the lead. We know that we are expected, in an honest and ethical society, to pay for that other item, because it is in fact an item separate from the movie we saw in the theatre.
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Information, as a resource (and this includes "content") has been declining in price for years. It will continue to do so. DRM won't stop this trend. Indeed, piracy will probably accelerate the trend. In richer societies, like ours, certain groups will manipulate markets and legislate to "protect" their incomes, at everyone else's expense. For example, the scheme for marketing textbooks to college students.
In software, we'll see alot more free and open source products, and if M$ doesn't lower its prices, it will disappear. In regards to textbooks, most of the world will start using extremely inexpensive e-texts, and we'll wonder why our technologically advanced country is so stupid that we make kids pay $100 or more for a single text, not available in e-format. And books, movies, and music will drop in price, or companies won't sell very many copies of them. Not when people can visit their local library and get the stuff for free.