Abstract:
The author put forward a serious problem at first that information infrastructure which is made up of combination of new technologies (Information in digital form, computer networks, and the Web) has the potential to demonish the careful balancing of public good and private interest that has emerged from the evolution of U.S. intellectual property law. The reason to this problem is simple that with digital technologies, it is very easy to make and distribute huge amount of copies of law-protected works effortlessly and cost-effectively. As a result, the author calls for rethinking about many of our premises and practices. To address this problem, the author presents a combination of solutions, which are technological solutions, innovative business model, multiple views, and adjustment of intellectual property laws. The author also realized that none of these solutions can wipe out the problem completely, but each one of them can reduce the problem sharply. As a conclusion, the author indicates that the society as a whole will ajust to the reality and carry on in familar ways. But accommodation without proper solutions is not enough.
The reason I picked up this article is that infriging copy rights (piracy) seems to be fairly popular after all those free tools and technologies made available under the freeconomics model. However, it is not reasonable to blame the free system partly because free is a new trend in the 21st century – it brings about progress and inevitably weakness and new challenges and it is irreversible. So, under the new system, it requires us to have new understandings and therefore new measures on these challenges. The author does a great job in analysing the situation and put forward unique and innovative methods to deal with these problems. One of the solutions fits tightly with Chris Andersen’s free model – give away the product，make money from an auxiliary service;give away the product, sell upgrades;give away one piece that promotes another; offer extreme customization;offer a mass-market product at a low price and high volume, along with frequent improvements. The central idea here is, according to the author, to keep the price extremely low to reduce the intention and pressure for piracy.
I think this is a classic example of using free in a creative way to deal with piracy issues.
