Re: Napster, Planned Obsolescence & Control

[Rick Anderson <Rick_Anderson@uncg.edu>]

On Sun,  4 Jun 2000 15:33:29 EDT David Goodman 
<dgoodman@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> wrote:

> Another way is to drastically lower the cost of production enough to
> permit free distribution. 

The problem is that, since information does not spring into existence
spontaneously, there needs to be some way to make it worth an author's
effort to produce information.  We can streamline distribution all we
want, but nothing we can do to the infrastructure of information
distribution will make it easier to write a novel or a song.  I can
promise you that E.L. Doctorow won't write another novel unless he can get
paid for it.  Without control of the content, I don't see how he can get
paid.  It may well be true that control of info is no longer possible; if
so, that may be the end of many types of high quality information.  If the
only people who can afford to write novels are those with day jobs and
lots of spare time...

--------
Rick Anderson
Head Acquisitions Librarian
Jackson Library
UNC Greensboro
(336) 334-5281
rick_anderson@uncg.edu

"If you enjoy, you understand;
if you understand, you enjoy... 
To like a football game is to 
understand it in the football way."
       -- Gertrude Stein