At 07:24 PM 2/2/2009, Dwayne Monroe wrote:
>shag:
>
>
>I only find it annoying that people want everything for free and
>refuse to see how they're paying. That's been going on a long time,
>sure, but it's especially insidious these days and contributes to the
>notion that writers, artists, etc. don't need to be paid for their
>work. it's on the net! for free! download away! it's free! whee! that
>would be great, in the socialist figure, right now writers, editors,
>artists, and musicians actually, you know, have to make a fucking
>living.
[WS:] I do not know what other people expect, but I certainly do not expect anything for free. Nor to I expect to pay something for nothing, or virtual razzle dazzle that evaporates the minute I pay for it.
To illustrate - when I buy a copy of a book it is mine for the rest of my life. I can read it in my house, at work, on a train, in my friend's house, I can loan it to my friends to read - and my ability to do so will never expire as long as my mind is capable of processing written information. In short, I pay for a product and I enjoy the use of that product as long as I want.
By contrast, if I buy some virtual bullshit peddled by electronic monopoly capitalist, I pay through the nose for it, but in return I get a *license* to use that product on the monopoly capitalist's terms - i.e. he determines where I can use it, how long I can use it, who I can use it with and so on. I can termineate my acceess to the material I purchased if he does not like the way I use it or he can make it obsolete by simply changing the access code. This no different than totalitarian censorship that restricted access to written material and allowed them to be used on the terms that the "license grantor" i.e. the government deemed fit. Except that in case of totalitarian censorship of books most educated people oppose it, but in case of monopoly capitalism censorship of electronically stored information, a lot of otherwise intelligent people embrace is as the right thing to do.
In short, when I buy electronicallystored information, I expect to get a product not a permission to use information on the terms specified by a monopolist. This holds for all other products - food, clothes, furtniture, tools etc. Why should electronically stored merchandise be different?
Wojtek