Decius wrote:
] k wrote:
] ] I'd like to think that ultimately the dust will settle and a
] ] compromise will be found...
]
] I wish I shared your optimism. I don't.

[ You may not be optimistic, but I think even your words here don't argue against a solution.

You're right that we don't have a clue how to build an idea economy, and that doing so flies in the face of everything we're used to. But, as you say, the landscape is changing and we're facing the prospect of an economy built almost entirely on conceptual products. (Enter things like automated engineering, nanofabrication, etc. and you can push that number to 100%, as all products are made for you on a pattern or recipe you provide.) We are at a stage with no real analogue in history, i don't think...

My general philosophy states that things which must get done, will get done. The options are : 1. societal collapse following economic collapse (which, as we all read, may come at the hands of oil shortages before anything else) 2. finding a new model.

No one wants option one (well, ok, some people do, but i'm ignoring them), and though it may take longer than it should for people to recognize it, they'll have to do something to change the model. So they will. Will it be painful and costly? Oh hell yeah, though, like the oil issue, it'll be easier and cheaper the sooner we start.

I think economics still works. At some point the costs involved in butressing antiquated business models will exceed the value of the industry, and the industry will seek other ways of doing business. Humans *will* keep making music... but their method of being compensated will change, perhaps into a digital analogue of the patronage system of centuries past for all i know.

RIAA is probably not going to compromise, but the industry (by which i mean the collective action of making music professionally) is going to be more fluid, and faced with growing complexity and expense, will shift to alternate mechanisms. RIAA and the big-five conglomerates they represent will fade away.

I guess if i can use your 'blowing a bubble' metaphor, i see it as more likely that we'll run out of air before the bubble pops. At the heart of it all is people, and they'll get tired of the situation in one way or another. There are multiple routes to the next phase, different sources of feedback, but all of them involve, as I think you must agree, the end of models fixated on a non-existent physical product. It's not sustainable, and won't be sustained. Alternatives will be found, because they must be found. -k]

RE: Congress hears DMCA testimony | The Register