If you haven't noticed already, this Murphy blogger has been on quite an ars technica kick lately. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, they do a really nice job of covering a range of issues in the tech world. From science to law and policy to business, ars covers issues in a manner that makes tech accessible to the less tech-savvy, like myself, for instance. Also, they have a pretty good sense of humor. Finally, as an added bonus, I can get my video game news fix while still appearing to be hard at work on this blog. Everybody wins!
Those of you following the library via the intarwebs and our print publication, the Murphy's Law newsletter, may recall a book review of Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture. One of the central theses of that book was that with the rise and apparent permanency of p2p file sharing technology, the content industry must abandon its antiquated business model if it wishes to survive as a lucrative business. That has not happened. The RIAA and the MPAA continue to pursue their scorched earth policy of attempting to sue illegal filesharing into oblivion.
However, just because the industry itself is not exploring other models does not mean that everyone is standing pat. In fact, ars posted an article today detailing the efforts of an Australian man to provide means for guilt ridden pirates to clear their conscience and compensate artists. According to the article, the website, piracypayback.org, isn't exactly setting the world on fire (or even self-sustaining) just yet. Regardless, it does provide an example of someone trying to create a novel system where consumers and artists get what they want out of content.
No comments:
Post a Comment