Howard Rheingold Fears The End Of Innovation
from the you-have-to-fight-for-your-right-to-coooooode dept
Well known futurist and social commentator (and occasional Techdirt reader), Howard Rheingold, was getting set to give his usual "smart mobs" talk at this week's O'Reilly Conference, when he apparently decided there was something much more important to talk about. He's sounding the alarm that corporations and the government are trying to take away your right to innovate. I guess Rheingold is standing in for Larry Lessig at this year's conference. While I certainly agree that many companies are trying to unfairly protect obsolete business models, and duping politicians into supporting them, telling this to the O'Reilly crowd is preaching to the converted. They give the same talk at every one of these conferences, and nothing really changes. Politicians listen to the companies that get them elected, and until you convince those companies that it's in their best interest to support open innovation (not an easy process), they're going to keep believing (incorrectly) that they need to stick with their obsolete business model and push for laws that make that possible.
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No Subject Given
It's a rare thing for a company to last for more than a few generations of workers. Most established companies will eventually be replaced by new companies making superior technology. Automobile makers put carriage makers out of business. The airpalne industry has decimated passenger rail lines. And the technology industry will replace traditional record labels.
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Re: No Subject Given
Generally, that means redefining the market they're in. If the passenger rail business realized it was in the transportation business rather than the "passenger rail" business, then they would have gladly adopted airplanes.
The problem is that the record label business really thinks it's in the "CD-selling" business, when it's not. They need to realize that the "entertainment" business covers a much larger area, and figure out how to deal with the new realities of the environment.
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