For those who haven't yet downloaded the Exposure PDF (or are too lazy or time-constrained to read the whole thing), here are a few quotes of interest:
(From John Perry Barlow’s chapter, titled “Selling Wine Without Bottles”)
…the rights of invention and authorship adhered to activities in the physical world. One didn’t get paid for ideas but for the ability to deliver them into reality. For all practical purposes, the value was in the conveyance and not the thought conveyed. In other words, the bottle was protected, not the wine.
The best way to protect intellectual property is to act on it.
Our intellectual property protection derives from our being the only real-time source of it.
Point of view is an asset which cannot be stolen or duplicated.
The central economic distinction between information and physical property is the ability of information to be transferred without leaving the possession of the original owner.
[for ideas], familiarity has more value than scarcity… the best thing you can do to raise the demand for your product is to give it away.
Eclectic antics & observations on design, writing and demolishing the status quo
3 comments:
So the Dead typically had very open policies regarding recording their live shows - even providing sound board feeds to fans for better sound quality. Then those fans copied and shared the bootlegs, which undoubtedly increased the overall fan base... i.e. raised demand for all things Jerry and company. Having a library of bootleg live recordings would tend to increase the chances a fan will buy a ticket for the next concert... I've never heard anybody say "nah, I've already heard them live... why bother?"
And that's precisely the philosophy at work in the Exposure book... and their willingness to 1) make it available as a free download and 2) let me sell copies of it via Rogue Press.
They clearly understand & believe that the "bootleg" copies I'm offering for sale don't diminish their value or take away from their market position. In fact, it increases the value of their stuff, by making it more familiar, getting people talking about it, etc... (particularly since they aren't selling it anymore. It might be a different thing if they had a warehouse full of the $50 version, waiting to be sold...)
Ah Hah! Hope you got my e-mail about posting your "briefing" online ;) It is truly uncanny how sometimes you think of an idea, then low and behold, there it is expressed before you by other people, in a different form. Your going to think I read Exposure and then sent you that e-mail. But it ain't so. Remember lowering your associative barriers? Wow!
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