Re: [lp-ca-on] Software Freedom Dialogue Strategy (was Re: SFD Street Activism)

[Blaise Alleyne]

On 25/08/16 10:14 AM, Greg Knittl wrote:
> www.techdirt.com is a good source for the economics of free. Extensive
> discussion of various business models to make money with free products. Real
> scarcity vs artificial scarcity.
> https://www.techdirt.com/blog/entrepreneurs/?tag=business+models is a good 
> place
> to start
> 
> Techdirt also covers copyright use and mostly abuse in great detail from a US
> perspective.
> 

Yeah, Techdirt is excellent!

Mike Masnick did a series a long time ago on the Economics of Abundance:
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070503/012939/grand-unified-theory-economics-free.shtml

That Techdirt Economics of Abundance stuff transformed the way I think about and
defend free software/culture, e.g. this post I wrote for Techdirt:
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20091109/1521136859.shtml


Techdirt is also great on understanding copyright, and US-focused but plenty of
Canadian stuff does appear. I covered Canadian copyright stuff for Techdirt
around the 2009 consultations, stuff with SOCAN, Songwriters Association of
Canada, etc. -- and others have been covering Canadian stuff after me, and
Techdirt and Michael Geist read each other and Geist's stuff often features on
Techdirt.

With Techdirt's copyright stuff, or Michael Geist... I feel like for our
purposes, it's stuff that would be useful for us to know, and perhaps be able to
use if a conversation went in that direction, but probably not a primary talking
point or anything.

But with the Techdirt economics of abundance stuff, I think that's primary
talking point material. It's the economic explanation for the moral argument
that if we can costlessly replicate things that make life better for our
neighbours or things that solve problems for our neighbours, don't we have an
obligation to share or doesn't it at least follow that putting artificial
restrictions on sharing is an injustice?

The Techdirt/Masnick insight/angle is to approach artificial scarcity not as an
injustice, but as short-sighted thinking that leads to doomed business models
anyways -- that recognizing infinite goods and maximizing they use rather than
artificially limiting them actually makes for better business in the long-run
(which also happens to support software freedom). It turns the apparent
"weakness" of free software in economics into a strength, but showing how
artificial scarcity is a really shaky and terrible foundation for a sustainable
business.

I think I'll add the economics of abundance stuff to the wiki under economics
talking points, and maybe add links to copyright stuff as background reading?

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