[10517] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Debating the NII "Truisms"
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Brad Cox @ GMU/PSOL)
Fri Feb 25 23:53:33 1994
Date: Sun, 13 Feb 1994 10:01:20 -0500
To: com-priv@psi.com,
From: bcox@gmu.edu (Brad Cox @ GMU/PSOL)
The future Ross Stapleton-Gray <STAPLETON@bpa.arizona.edu> wrote:
> "If intellectual property rights aren't preserved, no one is going
> to put any information on the 'information superhighway.'"
>
>The first statement is patently (no pun intended!) false, at least as
>reflected by the growth in the content of the Internet alone.
Ross, the distinction relevant to this discussion is buried inside that
portmanteau word "information". Why not open up the discussion by
distinguishing at least between signal and noise, or between free stuff
(bits nobody cares enough about to even want to own, like email traffic or
netnews) and infoage goods like computer software, clipart, electronic
books and so forth.
In other words, adopting the same distinctions we use when discussing
property rights in tangible domains; recognizing the difference between
waste products (property that nobody cares enough about to want to own) and
commercial products (property that they very much do).
With these distinctions in hand, you're certainly right about free stuff
(email traffic and netnews). Nobody cares to own it but it spreads on
regardless. The internet future unfolds very much as in the past and
present, an infinitely expanding infoage garbage dump, a conveyor of low
quality chitchat and noise.
No doubt the internet plumbing purveyors don't mind the noise. Pumping it
around is how they make a living. But that's not a future I'm very much
interested in. Unlike us nerds, ordinary citizems do care about content and
won't subscribe to a garbage pump, no matter how universal or how cheap the
hookup is made.
Imagine TV with content as on internet; presidential anouncements, meeting
minutes, an endless progression of low budget talking heads. I've seen this
future and it ain't pretty; ever watch the socialized TV in Europe? Uggh.
--
Brad Cox; George Mason Program on Social and Organizational Learning
Fairfax VA; bcox@gmu.edu; 703 968 8229 voice 968 8798 fax
