[10274] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Debating the NII "Truisms"
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Brad Cox @ GMU/PSOL)
Mon Feb 14 22:48:42 1994
Date: Mon, 14 Feb 1994 20:40:48 -0500
To: com-priv@psi.com
From: bcox@gmu.edu (Brad Cox @ GMU/PSOL)
Cc: tenney@netcom.com (Glenn S. Tenney)
Glenn Tenney wrote
>Turns out one Japanese company felt differently. That company took the
>public domain software, made a few changes to commercialize it, and turned
>around and sold it for, if I recall, something like $400,000 a pop. And
>quite a few US chip manufacturers bought it.
>
>So, your comments about "free stuff" are slightly off base... There is
>actually a huge amount of valuable stuff that is free. The problem is that
>some peoples' (primarily corporate) perception of value is that if they
>can't own it, then it is not valuable -- and therefore treat it like waste.
>
>One of the areas in which things will change (and it will be a huge shock
>to most people) is in their perception of value, especially of intellectual
>property. To paraphrase... This ain't your grandfathers intellectual
>property.
I suspect the disagreement is more apparent than real. To see why, ask
"What is the difference than an ordinary rock and a Pet Rock(TM)?" I say
"The same as the difference between pre- and post-japanese treatment of the
free stuff we're discussing.
In the pre state, nobody would buy it; a workable definition for waste
product in my book. In the post state, they would, a workable definition
for commercial product.
That word "value" is indeed slippery, particularly in the case of computer
software. Getting *very* controversial now (I'm going to be sorry; why am I
doing this?), FSF stuff is good example. Tremendous functionality buried in
unacceptable packaging, thus destined to most people's waste product heap.
Meanwhile low functionality hyper packaged and marketed Microsoft stuff (MS
Word; Argggh!) reigns supreme.
--
Brad Cox; George Mason Program on Social and Organizational Learning
Fairfax VA; bcox@gmu.edu; 703 968 8229 voice 968 8798 fax
