Informational anarchy, or how to defeat torrents and legalize copyright
You can often hear the following questions: “How to defeat piracy?”, “Is it possible to legalize file sharing?”, “How to reform copyright?”
I think it is impossible to adequately answer these individual questions if you do not see the big picture, do not understand what is happening with the information business as a whole, and with its products, with books, with periodicals - newspapers, magazines, with music, photos, films, games , design, software (hereinafter referred to as info-products).
Information revolution
We are witnessing two revolutionary processes:
1. Digital media: the desire for quality and to reach a larger audience has led to a change in media (media) for information products, from analog media to digital. This gave the initial growth of incomes of producers (authors, publishers, studios) under the conditions of the old business model.
2. Tsiforovye distribution channels: the development of telecommunications, personal gadgets has led to the fact that the old business model in the dissemination of information products was killed by the phenomenon of the Internet, more precisely a combination of digital media and digital distribution channels.
The Internet has killed the old business model so quickly that there is now a vacuum for the modern business model and anarchy is flourishing in this void. What we see is anarchy. Anarchy is a scattering of income, imbalances, a drop in production and, potentially, the death of a business.
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Informational Anarchy
Info-products have unique basic properties: copying (ease of obtaining a copy of the highest quality product) and replication (any copy of the product itself becomes a source of other copies).
Under the influence of these properties, the legitimate owners of information products do not control the further fate of their products. As a result of copying and replication, two streams of info-products are created:
- the first stream of conditionally paid copies, which is controlled by the author (it can be not only absolute payment for each copy, but also conditionally paid business solutions - shareware, freemium, micro payments, various licenses securing the author’s right to receive payment for commercial use product, the right to a brand and advertising, and many other forms of relative pay and free of charge under the control of the author and / or owner of rights),
- the second stream of conditionally paid copies, which is not controlled by the author (these are all types of cloud storage of public access and non-public access copies, all torrents, all local copies of files created for personal use after the official purchase, and others), with such “ left"; copies can also bring income to their new owners (but not authors), through advertising, or direct sales (SMS for downloading, copying to physical media, paying a subscription), or providing any services using info-products (free use of software , video rental, etc.).
Information anarchy creates exactly the second stream, the free distribution of products without the knowledge and without the will of the authors and owners.
I note that all copies lying on torrents and in online offline storages are not created by the owners, but by fifth and / or hundredth consumers who recorded, rewritten, possibly changed the format, design, code, and placed these copies in public access or left for personal use, that is, all work on the preparation and replication of copies are not made by their rightful owners. Perhaps the authors and the owners of the original info-products would still have to pay extra to the pirates for popularizing products, fixing bugs, design, and so on, if you can joke like that, and as some users seriously claim.
Understanding the power of this basic property of information - copying - the legislation of many countries prohibits the very fact of copying and declares it a violation of the law. This decision is dictated by fear, because the author and the owner will not be able to control the further fate of the copy. So it is necessary to prohibit copies. But, in fact, the info-pirate used the basic property of the info-product. Rewriting the legally purchased CD with the songs of the favorite group into its mp3 player, every person on earth becomes a pirate.
The basic properties of digital media and the lack of control over the fate of their product create the current situation of informational anarchy. The problem is not only in the absence of distribution control, there are also no mechanisms how to realistically assess losses from piracy, and whether it is possible to transfer a stream of copies not controlled by the author at all under some kind of control and find methods how to extract revenues from a stream of unauthorized copies even in the form of advertising or reputation.
New properties of products and distribution channels require new solutions, but the authors and holders of rights to products operate on the basis of outdated copyright legislation, created before the digital era, and designed for "analog media". Authors and owners can publish lists of violators, conduct demonstration raids and separate lawsuits on the basis of imperfect legislation. All this in general does not change the global picture of informational anarchy, since it is impossible to ignore the basic properties of information.
Sources of information business revenue
Any industry is based on income. And as before, the fact that millions were stolen is not free, all info-products are paid for by several hundred (thousand) consumers who officially paid for the product. Therefore, the old, “analog” distribution channels — concerts, cinemas, paper books and magazines, disks signed by musicians, and so on — remain so valuable for the industry.
And technologies of restricting the basic properties of info-products are becoming equally valuable. Corporations - monsters like Amazon and Apple, are trying to fight for the value of their business under the new rules, but they use all the same old logic. They are trying to deprive the information product of its modern basic properties - freedom of distribution and freedom of copying. Aipads, Kindles, DRM, closed formats and stores from which the product cannot be removed, try to keep profits as before.
Myth of free information
Informational anarchy, clumsy attempts to keep afloat from mega-corporations, and the continuing growth of free access to information products have created in some people the myth of free information. Free information is as absurd as the inclusion of pirated copies in unearned income. Each side of the conflict - in its own absurdity, so to speak.
Information is the most expensive and difficult-to-extract product in nature.
But why do we see that the number of pirated copies is growing, but the volume of information products on the market is also growing, the number of authors and units (songs, designs, texts, films, games, etc.) is increasing. Or they are not afraid that they will not pay, or they also believe in the free information?
I can offer a complex explanation of this simultaneous growth — piracy and production. I have no simple explanations. I quickly tried to imagine what was happening with the information in its current form, the scheme is far from ideal and can be supplemented with many more points:
1. the production of information lives at the expense of the paid product and is not related to the unpaid;
2. as long as someone pays for the product, these revenues will be adjusted - stimulate or stop - production;
3. in addition to the digital forms of info-products, there are still “analog” forms that are difficult to copy and which give a significant part of the profit for authors and owners;
4. the decline in production due to the decline in the share of payment can still be seen - in studios and publishing houses (examples from the music industry, the newspaper and magazine industry are already visible and well described);
5. the drop in production of studios is replaced by the production of individual authors (free music on bandcamp-dot-com, free information blogs);
6. individual authors are ready (are they really ready?) To distribute the product for free, because
a) have received a rich inheritance, or live at the expense of an uncle, a public foundation and / or the state;
b) or they like to live in poverty, but give society a quality product;
c) or they like to redistribute resources, that is, having come from work that feeds and feeds them, work out the second shift for the public benefit for free and for their ambitions and self-exaltation;
To create a quality product, and devote all your time to it, you need to draw resources from somewhere - this is the rule, this is the law.
All free freeware is created by professionals who either have a permanent job in their specialty, or have contributions from their products. All free blogs are run by professionals in their free time. People earn resources in order to later share some of their knowledge and skills for free. People can spend their money as they want, but they should have this money. Information brings and should bring income. Information can not be free in general, but it can and should be free in particular.
The revolution continues
Anarchy is a spontaneous market for the exchange of values, a source of problems and a source of solutions. Anarchy is the mother of order. I think a solution will be found soon, and that it does not lie in limiting the basic properties of info-products. First of all, the solution to reduce information anarchy is to use the basic properties of information products for the benefit of all, their legislative description and adoption.
I think the revolution that occurs in information products (in media and distribution channels), which led to anarchy, will soon take place for the information business model, and the world will learn new rules. And these rules will differ significantly from everything that we have known so far.
In the world of digital technology, you cannot simply stick a price tag on a product and put it on the shelf. Here it is more and more difficult and unpredictable. Decisions are not so obvious, and they cannot be formulated in a single paragraph of the text. The business model of the future information company is not simple solutions:
- perhaps it will be the access control systems for the product,
- Perhaps the key to solving the problems of the information business (revenue loss, loss of control) lies in the products themselves.
New information products should appear and are already emerging, the basic properties of which are, besides copyability and replicability, and the source of control built into them and the source of income (monetary and / or reputational), which will be the same basic property of these products. Thus, the two revolutions that I started with the description, the digital media revolution, and the distribution channel revolution are not yet complete, and require further development. And this is good. Everyone can take part in the revolution, everyone can become the pioneer of a new reality, new rules and laws.
We all see the same phenomenon, but each gives him an estimate based on his knowledge, from the information he has. And often, very often, limited information leads to erroneous conclusions. Information should be available, information should be free, but information should not be free. Both new digital forms and a new business model that solves many current problems of the information business will be able to combine the freedom, accessibility and payment of information.
(I will continue this topic if it arouses interest.
I would be grateful for constructive criticism, as I’m really interested in developing a discussion of this topic).
I think it is impossible to adequately answer these individual questions if you do not see the big picture, do not understand what is happening with the information business as a whole, and with its products, with books, with periodicals - newspapers, magazines, with music, photos, films, games , design, software (hereinafter referred to as info-products).
Information revolution
We are witnessing two revolutionary processes:
1. Digital media: the desire for quality and to reach a larger audience has led to a change in media (media) for information products, from analog media to digital. This gave the initial growth of incomes of producers (authors, publishers, studios) under the conditions of the old business model.
2. Tsiforovye distribution channels: the development of telecommunications, personal gadgets has led to the fact that the old business model in the dissemination of information products was killed by the phenomenon of the Internet, more precisely a combination of digital media and digital distribution channels.
The Internet has killed the old business model so quickly that there is now a vacuum for the modern business model and anarchy is flourishing in this void. What we see is anarchy. Anarchy is a scattering of income, imbalances, a drop in production and, potentially, the death of a business.
')
Informational Anarchy
Info-products have unique basic properties: copying (ease of obtaining a copy of the highest quality product) and replication (any copy of the product itself becomes a source of other copies).
Under the influence of these properties, the legitimate owners of information products do not control the further fate of their products. As a result of copying and replication, two streams of info-products are created:
- the first stream of conditionally paid copies, which is controlled by the author (it can be not only absolute payment for each copy, but also conditionally paid business solutions - shareware, freemium, micro payments, various licenses securing the author’s right to receive payment for commercial use product, the right to a brand and advertising, and many other forms of relative pay and free of charge under the control of the author and / or owner of rights),
- the second stream of conditionally paid copies, which is not controlled by the author (these are all types of cloud storage of public access and non-public access copies, all torrents, all local copies of files created for personal use after the official purchase, and others), with such “ left"; copies can also bring income to their new owners (but not authors), through advertising, or direct sales (SMS for downloading, copying to physical media, paying a subscription), or providing any services using info-products (free use of software , video rental, etc.).
Information anarchy creates exactly the second stream, the free distribution of products without the knowledge and without the will of the authors and owners.
I note that all copies lying on torrents and in online offline storages are not created by the owners, but by fifth and / or hundredth consumers who recorded, rewritten, possibly changed the format, design, code, and placed these copies in public access or left for personal use, that is, all work on the preparation and replication of copies are not made by their rightful owners. Perhaps the authors and the owners of the original info-products would still have to pay extra to the pirates for popularizing products, fixing bugs, design, and so on, if you can joke like that, and as some users seriously claim.
Understanding the power of this basic property of information - copying - the legislation of many countries prohibits the very fact of copying and declares it a violation of the law. This decision is dictated by fear, because the author and the owner will not be able to control the further fate of the copy. So it is necessary to prohibit copies. But, in fact, the info-pirate used the basic property of the info-product. Rewriting the legally purchased CD with the songs of the favorite group into its mp3 player, every person on earth becomes a pirate.
The basic properties of digital media and the lack of control over the fate of their product create the current situation of informational anarchy. The problem is not only in the absence of distribution control, there are also no mechanisms how to realistically assess losses from piracy, and whether it is possible to transfer a stream of copies not controlled by the author at all under some kind of control and find methods how to extract revenues from a stream of unauthorized copies even in the form of advertising or reputation.
New properties of products and distribution channels require new solutions, but the authors and holders of rights to products operate on the basis of outdated copyright legislation, created before the digital era, and designed for "analog media". Authors and owners can publish lists of violators, conduct demonstration raids and separate lawsuits on the basis of imperfect legislation. All this in general does not change the global picture of informational anarchy, since it is impossible to ignore the basic properties of information.
Sources of information business revenue
Any industry is based on income. And as before, the fact that millions were stolen is not free, all info-products are paid for by several hundred (thousand) consumers who officially paid for the product. Therefore, the old, “analog” distribution channels — concerts, cinemas, paper books and magazines, disks signed by musicians, and so on — remain so valuable for the industry.
And technologies of restricting the basic properties of info-products are becoming equally valuable. Corporations - monsters like Amazon and Apple, are trying to fight for the value of their business under the new rules, but they use all the same old logic. They are trying to deprive the information product of its modern basic properties - freedom of distribution and freedom of copying. Aipads, Kindles, DRM, closed formats and stores from which the product cannot be removed, try to keep profits as before.
Myth of free information
Informational anarchy, clumsy attempts to keep afloat from mega-corporations, and the continuing growth of free access to information products have created in some people the myth of free information. Free information is as absurd as the inclusion of pirated copies in unearned income. Each side of the conflict - in its own absurdity, so to speak.
Information is the most expensive and difficult-to-extract product in nature.
But why do we see that the number of pirated copies is growing, but the volume of information products on the market is also growing, the number of authors and units (songs, designs, texts, films, games, etc.) is increasing. Or they are not afraid that they will not pay, or they also believe in the free information?
I can offer a complex explanation of this simultaneous growth — piracy and production. I have no simple explanations. I quickly tried to imagine what was happening with the information in its current form, the scheme is far from ideal and can be supplemented with many more points:
1. the production of information lives at the expense of the paid product and is not related to the unpaid;
2. as long as someone pays for the product, these revenues will be adjusted - stimulate or stop - production;
3. in addition to the digital forms of info-products, there are still “analog” forms that are difficult to copy and which give a significant part of the profit for authors and owners;
4. the decline in production due to the decline in the share of payment can still be seen - in studios and publishing houses (examples from the music industry, the newspaper and magazine industry are already visible and well described);
5. the drop in production of studios is replaced by the production of individual authors (free music on bandcamp-dot-com, free information blogs);
6. individual authors are ready (are they really ready?) To distribute the product for free, because
a) have received a rich inheritance, or live at the expense of an uncle, a public foundation and / or the state;
b) or they like to live in poverty, but give society a quality product;
c) or they like to redistribute resources, that is, having come from work that feeds and feeds them, work out the second shift for the public benefit for free and for their ambitions and self-exaltation;
To create a quality product, and devote all your time to it, you need to draw resources from somewhere - this is the rule, this is the law.
All free freeware is created by professionals who either have a permanent job in their specialty, or have contributions from their products. All free blogs are run by professionals in their free time. People earn resources in order to later share some of their knowledge and skills for free. People can spend their money as they want, but they should have this money. Information brings and should bring income. Information can not be free in general, but it can and should be free in particular.
The revolution continues
Anarchy is a spontaneous market for the exchange of values, a source of problems and a source of solutions. Anarchy is the mother of order. I think a solution will be found soon, and that it does not lie in limiting the basic properties of info-products. First of all, the solution to reduce information anarchy is to use the basic properties of information products for the benefit of all, their legislative description and adoption.
I think the revolution that occurs in information products (in media and distribution channels), which led to anarchy, will soon take place for the information business model, and the world will learn new rules. And these rules will differ significantly from everything that we have known so far.
In the world of digital technology, you cannot simply stick a price tag on a product and put it on the shelf. Here it is more and more difficult and unpredictable. Decisions are not so obvious, and they cannot be formulated in a single paragraph of the text. The business model of the future information company is not simple solutions:
- perhaps it will be the access control systems for the product,
- Perhaps the key to solving the problems of the information business (revenue loss, loss of control) lies in the products themselves.
New information products should appear and are already emerging, the basic properties of which are, besides copyability and replicability, and the source of control built into them and the source of income (monetary and / or reputational), which will be the same basic property of these products. Thus, the two revolutions that I started with the description, the digital media revolution, and the distribution channel revolution are not yet complete, and require further development. And this is good. Everyone can take part in the revolution, everyone can become the pioneer of a new reality, new rules and laws.
We all see the same phenomenon, but each gives him an estimate based on his knowledge, from the information he has. And often, very often, limited information leads to erroneous conclusions. Information should be available, information should be free, but information should not be free. Both new digital forms and a new business model that solves many current problems of the information business will be able to combine the freedom, accessibility and payment of information.
(I will continue this topic if it arouses interest.
I would be grateful for constructive criticism, as I’m really interested in developing a discussion of this topic).
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/143806/
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