I think that people are taking the request at face value instead of what is really intended. The Brazilian newspapers want their vigorish. They figure that since Google makes money from GN, it would be cheaper to share the spoils than it would be to drop the newpapapers from GN.
Of course, content owners have a realistic idea on how much Google earns from GN (not!)
Eric Flint at Baen Books has been doing a similar thing for several years. I think their focus is more on authors with a catalog.
One thing that has always confused me with regards to the control publishers demand around the copywrite is the failure to republish their back catalog. You would think that would be free money but they seem to have no interest in epublishin what they already have.
I wonder what the optimal mix of prices would be for the traditional mix of Hard cover, paperback/trade and ebook would be? I don't remember any mention of an analysis similar to this for that mix.
Nothing I have read indicates that publishers are interested in optimizing book prices. The approach seems to be 'what the market will bear' and must protect the whale authors.
OTOH, if I was only an ebook author, I would be crazy to add the overhead of a traditional publisher and pay for expertise they eveidently don't have.
I think we must acknowledge that the Web, especially Web 1.0 is old enough that there are now legacy players and they will be have that way. to wit: ' It works fine and I am threatened by anyone that does it differently'
the second part is usually: " I have money and you don't. Let's go to court'
Think about it, would 98% of the readers even know of the contest if this hadn't been the result? I am sure that the media will pick up on this as well, wouldn't be surprised to see this on leno or letterman (or is this more a
Conan thing?).
By rolling with it, Walmart and Pitbull both get a LOT more press than if it were just a run of the mill contest
This strikes me as wishful thinking. In a rational world, organizations would learn from failure. In a political world, they just seem to think that more is better and if it didn't work the first time, double down.(see TPP)
I would consider it newsworthy if there is any indication that the USTR was actually reconsidering and changing their approach but nothing in this blog would make me think that this is happening.
Let's Go XXXX has been around for decades. For that matter, Let's go Thunder has been around for about 20 years for my local AA baseball team the Trenton Thunder. I think there is prior art.
In fairness, the reference was to the IP intensive industries. Which movies and music are a small part, not the primary example as he would lead you to believe.
And he's mostly right... because it goes right back to what Rob said. For the most part, they don't seem to make that many good movies these days. They've focused on crappy, formulaic, derivative flicks. Every so often a good film gets out, but Hollywood has become afraid to make good movies most of the time. Perhaps if it spent more time focusing on that, and less on whining about how it needs to be protected, it wouldn't have so many problems.
The Hollywood model hasn't changed in the last 100 years. They follow Pareto's law (or for the more discriminating Sturgeon's law) and 80-90% of what they make is dross. 50 years ago it was star (Stewart, Gable, etc.) and genre driven(western anyone?); today they have added franchises to the mix but it is still quantity over quality. Critics have been forever suggesting better movies but Hollywood figures, it ain't broke so what to fix.
They protected the studio system with the same vigor then as they do copyright today, for the same reason, control of the assets for exploitation. The only difference today is that they can monitize the library easier (although that has always been part of the Disney model)
It makes you wonder if the organizations involved can actually make money performing the activities they were organized to perform.
Like a bank that loses money on checking and credit cards but makes money on the fees, these organizations seem to make their profit from retained earnings rather than contract fees.
They do a pretty good job of reviewing the ruling. As noted, it was the medium that decided the case. Because Blogs and Tweets require the participation of the recipient to be communication, rather than passive such as phone or email, it wasn't harassment. Also important was the fact as a public figure, the individual was not as protected from comment as a private person would be.
Infringement is more akin to smuggling. Smugglers react to an artificial scarcity to provide what is desired. Nothing is stolen, in fact the total supply is increased unlike theft. The only loser is the holder of the economic benefits of the scarcity.
"It's pretty sad, because Homeland Security and the Justice Department are supposed to be about defending the Constitution, not ignoring it."
You should have a much better understanding of Customs history that I do. Customs since Roman times has always been about collecting the taxes and tariffs. Most of the time, the tariffs were supporting protectionist policies. In merry olde England, the tariffs didn't even need approval of Parliament. Although they are supposed to follow the constitution, Customs primary duty has not been protecting it but enforcing protectionist policies and collecting taxes
The Customs Service doing the bidding of commercial interests is entirely consistent with 2000 years of tradition.
That was my initial thought. We never fired a shot directly at the USSR but were able to force regime change by competing with them economically through the arms race.
We cannot win the current arms race be cause of the asymmetrical nature of the threat/response
I think that Baen represents many of the 'new' business models that Mike and others discuss. You failed to mention that they also have a web board that you can connect with many of the authors and over the years has been the source of about 25% of the publishers author stable.
Baen also demonstrates the advantage of market focus. Not big in absolute terms but within it's niche, it has a strong following.
A Cautionary tale; several of the authors will not participate in the web boards because of some trolls accusing them of stealing ideas.
The vision that Jim Baen showed in building his publishing house has waned somewhat in the last few years since his death. I know that Eric Flint who is a strong advocate for what Jim was trying to achieve took over after that but as a working author, I don't think he has the same skill set Jim had.
Dinos
That's a bit of hyberbole, we can't be sure that they didn't support copyright and THAT was the reason that they went extinct.
However, we do know that Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, and biblical Jews didn't have copyright and that is the reason that they had no literature
Re: Gutenberg?
I think the Pope had that idea when luther was loose with all those dangerous notions.
Freedom fighters
one persons terrorist is anothers freedom fighter.
Where does Hamas fall according to the UN?
Vigorish
I think that people are taking the request at face value instead of what is really intended. The Brazilian newspapers want their vigorish. They figure that since Google makes money from GN, it would be cheaper to share the spoils than it would be to drop the newpapapers from GN.
Of course, content owners have a realistic idea on how much Google earns from GN (not!)
Baen
Eric Flint at Baen Books has been doing a similar thing for several years. I think their focus is more on authors with a catalog.
One thing that has always confused me with regards to the control publishers demand around the copywrite is the failure to republish their back catalog. You would think that would be free money but they seem to have no interest in epublishin what they already have.
Print Publishing
I wonder what the optimal mix of prices would be for the traditional mix of Hard cover, paperback/trade and ebook would be? I don't remember any mention of an analysis similar to this for that mix.
Nothing I have read indicates that publishers are interested in optimizing book prices. The approach seems to be 'what the market will bear' and must protect the whale authors.
OTOH, if I was only an ebook author, I would be crazy to add the overhead of a traditional publisher and pay for expertise they eveidently don't have.
Legacy Players
I think we must acknowledge that the Web, especially Web 1.0 is old enough that there are now legacy players and they will be have that way. to wit: ' It works fine and I am threatened by anyone that does it differently'
the second part is usually: " I have money and you don't. Let's go to court'
Obscurity
Think about it, would 98% of the readers even know of the contest if this hadn't been the result? I am sure that the media will pick up on this as well, wouldn't be surprised to see this on leno or letterman (or is this more a
Conan thing?).
By rolling with it, Walmart and Pitbull both get a LOT more press than if it were just a run of the mill contest
ORLY?
This strikes me as wishful thinking. In a rational world, organizations would learn from failure. In a political world, they just seem to think that more is better and if it didn't work the first time, double down.(see TPP)
I would consider it newsworthy if there is any indication that the USTR was actually reconsidering and changing their approach but nothing in this blog would make me think that this is happening.
Until that time, these entries are just filler.
Re:
Reminds me of the Google IP; 'no way are they going to monitze search to support that valuation'.
They had something of great value and knew it. the Moeny would come.
Now everyone wants Google to share that Money by hook or crook.
Originality
Let's Go XXXX has been around for decades. For that matter, Let's go Thunder has been around for about 20 years for my local AA baseball team the Trenton Thunder. I think there is prior art.
what a greedy little idiot
Re:
Coming soon to a Court near you: The Hollywood anti-defamation campaign. First up is the web site Rotten Tomatoes
Re:
In fairness, the reference was to the IP intensive industries. Which movies and music are a small part, not the primary example as he would lead you to believe.
Hollywood through the ages
And he's mostly right... because it goes right back to what Rob said. For the most part, they don't seem to make that many good movies these days. They've focused on crappy, formulaic, derivative flicks. Every so often a good film gets out, but Hollywood has become afraid to make good movies most of the time. Perhaps if it spent more time focusing on that, and less on whining about how it needs to be protected, it wouldn't have so many problems.
The Hollywood model hasn't changed in the last 100 years. They follow Pareto's law (or for the more discriminating Sturgeon's law) and 80-90% of what they make is dross. 50 years ago it was star (Stewart, Gable, etc.) and genre driven(western anyone?); today they have added franchises to the mix but it is still quantity over quality. Critics have been forever suggesting better movies but Hollywood figures, it ain't broke so what to fix.
They protected the studio system with the same vigor then as they do copyright today, for the same reason, control of the assets for exploitation. The only difference today is that they can monitize the library easier (although that has always been part of the Disney model)
Business Model
It makes you wonder if the organizations involved can actually make money performing the activities they were organized to perform.
Like a bank that loses money on checking and credit cards but makes money on the fees, these organizations seem to make their profit from retained earnings rather than contract fees.
Ars Technia
They do a pretty good job of reviewing the ruling. As noted, it was the medium that decided the case. Because Blogs and Tweets require the participation of the recipient to be communication, rather than passive such as phone or email, it wasn't harassment. Also important was the fact as a public figure, the individual was not as protected from comment as a private person would be.
Smuggling
Infringement is more akin to smuggling. Smugglers react to an artificial scarcity to provide what is desired. Nothing is stolen, in fact the total supply is increased unlike theft. The only loser is the holder of the economic benefits of the scarcity.
ICE =Customs
Mike,
"It's pretty sad, because Homeland Security and the Justice Department are supposed to be about defending the Constitution, not ignoring it."
You should have a much better understanding of Customs history that I do. Customs since Roman times has always been about collecting the taxes and tariffs. Most of the time, the tariffs were supporting protectionist policies. In merry olde England, the tariffs didn't even need approval of Parliament. Although they are supposed to follow the constitution, Customs primary duty has not been protecting it but enforcing protectionist policies and collecting taxes
The Customs Service doing the bidding of commercial interests is entirely consistent with 2000 years of tradition.
Regean
That was my initial thought. We never fired a shot directly at the USSR but were able to force regime change by competing with them economically through the arms race.
We cannot win the current arms race be cause of the asymmetrical nature of the threat/response
Baen Fan
I think that Baen represents many of the 'new' business models that Mike and others discuss. You failed to mention that they also have a web board that you can connect with many of the authors and over the years has been the source of about 25% of the publishers author stable.
Baen also demonstrates the advantage of market focus. Not big in absolute terms but within it's niche, it has a strong following.
A Cautionary tale; several of the authors will not participate in the web boards because of some trolls accusing them of stealing ideas.
The vision that Jim Baen showed in building his publishing house has waned somewhat in the last few years since his death. I know that Eric Flint who is a strong advocate for what Jim was trying to achieve took over after that but as a working author, I don't think he has the same skill set Jim had.