Sixteenth Chapter … Librivox Volunteers, “Quantitative and Qualitative Change”

Very interesting transcript of an on-air interview, beginning with the “free-as-in-speech” metaphor verses the “free-as-in-beer” concept. I have an interest in the intellectual property debate and Wittkower’s position that copyright rules create an artificial monopoly and are based upon outdated technology makes sense.

Competition has improved technology and the method of communication and publishing is so different today from what it was say two hundred years ago that the same rules no longer apply. It no longer takes a massive amount of labor and substantial capital to produce mass quantities of printed material. The average Westerner (nice that Wittkower differentiates from the average worker) can publish an original work in a matter of seconds and mass distribute around the globe equally fast with no significant additional capital for each subsequent transmission. Once she has purchased the original communications device and connected to a transmission protocol service purchasing dies, paper, typesetting, ink, transportation and related printing costs are optional.
The question seems to be that since her losses are smaller than they would have been had she spent a year’s productivity preparing the document for print only to have the market seized by larger printer who could undercut the price and duplicate the content without paying her anything, have her rights been infringed upon less?

Regarding the “semi-commitment” attitude that lowers the bar for entry into things that interest you, it has positive and negative points. I assume everybody has heard the one about the chicken and the hog who were discussing honoring the farmer with a quality breakfast … the chicken thought she was making a major contribution by providing the eggs until she realized what the hog had to do to provide bacon. There is a place for both ham and eggs. This article is a few minutes and ding, it is off and published. The author who dedicates years of extensive research and hones each and every phrase to perfection should be awarded more substantial rights -but how can the works be differentiated and is it ever "right" to have a sliding scale of justice? Who decides using what criteria?

The conversation shifts to Robert D. Putnam’s “Bowling Alone” book and the decrease in involvement with social and non-political organizations and its effect upon neighborhoods. Technology has provided a personal isolationism and a general movement away from a dictated culture. The ensuing discussion of consumerism, illegal art, commercial gain, ownership and public domain was interesting but non-conclusive. Ownership, privacy, community, action and justice ask complex questions and there are no simple answers, especially in a capitalistic based society that values individual thought, labor and at least pays lip service to protecting individual rights.