The other point that I felt this article could have emphasized better is that it isn't just true that traditional media outlets spread misinformation, but that often the outlets that set the record straight are new media like blogs.
Here's why: if they don't pay him, he'll leak information about this travesty of justice on WikiLeaks, and then they'll have more information to extend their movie for free!
TLDR: His argument about the tangibility and costs of digital goods being nonzero are technically correct, but they are so incredibly small that TechDirt and rational analysis win once more over irrational defenses of legacy business models. Hooray!
They're admitting that there is something better, that makes more money then their legacy business models. I think it's astounding how they're blind to the wisdom of their own words.
Cynically, I believe that the "exceptions" are actually going to be for the beneficiaries of copyright, while the "limitations" are going to be further imposed on the public.
I remember when Team Four Star (the group behind an amazingly popular parody of the anime Dragonball Z) did a similar, though less extensive, thing with one of their parody episodes; that episode was supposed to be like an arena with spectators, so they asked fans to donate sounds of cheers and boos. I didn't personally donate (because I wasn't actually sure what they meant at the time), but I still think it's amazingly cool.
That may be true, but not only is the USTR not being transparent about its negotiations, but it also lacks transparency regarding its own definition of transparency.
I think the real turning point may have been the damning report that came out of Planet Money/This American Life. That really showed people how crappy their (Intellectual Ventures') business model is.
Health and other regulations can be beneficial, if done properly and with care. Furthermore, a known side effect of health regulation (or any regulation) is that costs increase for all businesses, so supply decreases because some firms must go out of business to avoid huge costs. That is the price that society currently chooses to pay to have a better guarantee on the safety (or whatever else) of goods produced and services rendered.
The question is though whether all such regulations are necessary, and that is why such regulations must be implemented properly and with care. In this case, it's obvious that the regulation was abused much more for the purpose of stifling upcoming competition rather than actually caring for the safety of consumers. It's pretty clear too that removing the regulation on hair-braiding activities won't significantly harm anyone, so do away with it already!
Here's how screwed up the USTR's definition of transparency is:
If transparency is what it should be, then a two-way mirror would reveal someone in front of the mirror to someone behind the mirror, but the person in front of the mirror would only see a reflection.
If transparency is what the USTR thinks it should be, then a two-way mirror would reveal both a reflection and the imagine of someone behind the mirror to someone in front of the mirror, but the person behind the mirror sees nothing.
We are behind the mirror, and the USTR is in front of it. Real transparency should be the first case: the USTR sees its own negotiations and so should we (even if we are not allowed to actively contribute, which would still be a bad thing). USTR-style transparency is the second case: the USTR sees its own negotiations and sees us, claims that we can see it too, but we see nothing at all.
Never mind. This was what my original comment was supposed to say:
If a young child has imaginary friends, that's OK for a while, but that child should have a good number of real friends as well.
If that child promises to play with the real friends but uses the imaginary friends to drive away the real friends and break real friendships, that's a serious problem.
Now replace "child" with "politician" and "friend" with "property". The scenario is still very troubling.
Alright. I'm done arguing with you on this thread. (Then again, I'm not sure why I indulged in continuing the argument in the first place.) I tried my hardest to be forthcoming and pleasant with you and left many disagreements as they were without inciting further argumentation. Instead of responding in kind, you have stuck your fingers in your ears like a petulant child (with a tinfoil hat on top) and screamed "LALALALALALAIWILLIGNOREYOUANDPARANOIDLYCLAIMTHEGOVERNMENTISALWAYSMURDEROUSLYEVILLALALALALALA!" For someone who claims to be in favor of peace, your words don't sound particularly peaceful to me either.
At this point, all I can ask you to do is take some medication and stay away from this thread for some time so that you can regain your ability to form cogent arguments and make insightful comments here like you have done in the past. As for me, I will not reply to any new comments on this thread so that I too can keep my sanity intact.
When I wrote that little snarky comment, it was over the weekend, and I figured that considering that you seemed rather quick at responding to my comments (I mean, at one point, I was actually surprised that you were able to write a pretty lengthy and detailed reply so quickly), it seemed odd that you would suddenly stop commenting on that thread. Now I know why, so I sincerely do apologize for my snark and sarcasm; I don't have an excuse for turning an innocuous question ("where are you?") into a lame comment saying that your viewpoint might be incorrect (or something like that).
That said, I think I and the other commenters have responded to most of your previous comments, so I will not discuss that again in this context. What I will say will be in response to this particular comment.
Yes, my real name is in fact Prashanth. It is comes from a word of Sanskritic origin meaning "peace", so "Prashanth" as a name means "one who is peaceful". Typically my personality is that way, so while I won't apologize for holding a position on economics with which you and I disagree, I do apologize if at any point I let my emotions get the better of me in this comment thread. Deeper in the thread, I have tried to be careful to separate my own emotions from what I have learned about rational microeconomic analysis, but I can't guarantee that I haven't slipped up somewhere else in that thread.
This particular comment of yours seems to be rather over-the-top in its anger and vitriol against me, other commenters who don't necessarily agree with the Austrian school of economics, and the government in general, and I can tell that it is the culmination of a buildup of anger in general over all of the comments you have left on this article. (By the way, if you want to quit your job because you either have made your fortune or you are willing to depend upon either the state or the kindness of others, that is totally up to you. No one is stopping you from retiring/quitting your job early. You'll just have to have some sort of safety net to be able to subsist, either from your own savings or from someone else.) I hope that you aren't having problems at home or work, and I hope that you aren't having any financial or other troubles. Moreover, I hope that whatever may make you angry outside of TechDirt isn't the cause of your rather vitriolic comments. If you are having issues, please do take a holiday or something, get some rest, perhaps take an aspirin, and tell your family and friends how much you love and appreciate them.
I've quickly browsed through your website C4SIF, and it actually looks eminently reasonable. Sure, I may not agree with all of it, but I agree with a lot of it, and it makes me happy to see people like Michele Boldrin there too (because I really liked the book Against Intellectual Monopoly). Considering that we seem to agree on a lot of things that come up on TechDirt, it's really a shame that my little comment about antitrust legislation had to lead to this point. I hope that we can move on from here with minimal to no hard feelings and that we can continue to complement (and compliment) each others' posts about stuff like patent/copyright reform, et cetera.
Actually, your first statement was what I was trying to get at, so clearly I didn't do a good job of it. What I was trying to say was that studies seem to show that even for skilled laborers, there definitely needs to be a nonzero minimum level of income to motivate said workers to do work. Beyond that, efficiency wages work up to a point, but beyond that point, efficiency wages cease to be effective. For instance (and I'm using arbitrary numbers here that are not reflective of economic realities), if a skilled worker needs $100 per day to live and function properly, giving $150 will certainly help efficiency, and that relationship between wages and efficiency could hold true up to maybe $250, but maybe not up to $750.
Your idea of voting being a currency seems pretty interesting, but I'm not sure it's the right way to abstract the functions of a government. I will say though that the government hiring police officers, lawyers, et cetera to enforce laws does happen in a market for such people (whether that market is competitive or oligopolistic).
Finally, I always appreciate engaging in discussions like this. It also helps me think about and solidify/modify my own understanding of basic economics more too.
PS: Isn't it odd that Mr. Kinsella left this discussion rather early? (Teehee!)
Here's the problem with the "tragedy of the commons" analysis that you are using: what you're saying is that the lower you pay a given number of workers in the labor pool, the worse-off they'll be. If the labor pool situation really was a tragedy of the commons, what that would imply is that it is beneficial for workers for there to be high unemployment, because at any given wage if more workers are used for their labor then all of them will be worse-off and less efficient producers, and this is simply bogus. What you are thinking of is not a "tragedy of the commons" but an efficiency wage, which is the notion that paying workers a better wage incentivizes them to be more efficient workers. To me, this is a pretty reasonable assumption up to a point; empirically, I've seen a few studies that have shown that efficiency wages work really well for blue-collar/low-skill/mechanical jobs but they only work well up to a certain point (beyond which point they actually become counterproductive in many instances) for more skilled/thinking-type jobs. I don't know enough about the effectiveness of efficiency wages to further comment, so I will leave what I say about that topic at that.
Now regarding your other comment, the reason why several things like war, disease, taxes, and government action are considered non-market issues is because those things typically (though there are of course exceptions) do not spring from a voluntary transaction between a laborer acting as a consumer and a seller in another market. Plus, my original statement was that citizens could enact changes upon corporations through voting for new laws and new enforcement of said laws; this is not a market action because it does not involve the voluntary transaction between consumers and the given corporation, but instead involves consumers routing around that market and using the threat of legal action (as opposed to market action) to force the corporation to behave a certain way.
Also, wow, this thread has gone quite a number of levels deep, and WHYISTHETEXTSOTHIN???
On the post: When WSJ Flunks Internet History, Blogs Step In To Educate
The other point
On the post: Multiple Hollywood Studios Making Movies About Julian Assange; How Many Will Pay Him For His Story?
Meta-leak
On the post: The Warehousing And Delivery Of Digital Goods? Nearly Free, Pretty Easy, Mostly Trivial
Tangibility and costs
On the post: TV Analyst: Kids Love Netflix, And Disney Should Break Them Of That Nasty Habit
Not seeing their own words
On the post: New Evidence Shows That Patents Matter Less And Less For Startups
Patents matter
On the post: USTR's Surprise Turnaround: Now Advocating Limitations & Exceptions To Copyright
Exceptions and limitations
On the post: Band Asks Fans To 'Donate Sounds' For Next Album
TFS
On the post: Healthcare, Journalism, And The Mad Dash For 'The Scoop'
Re: Just to be meta about this post
On the post: Healthcare, Journalism, And The Mad Dash For 'The Scoop'
Just to be meta about this post
On the post: USTR Rejects Rep. Issa's Request To Observe TPP Negotiations
Re: USTR IS betng transparent
On the post: Intellectual Ventures Loses Its Shine: Will Its Business Model Ever Work?
The real turning point
On the post: Why You Can't Braid Someone's Hair In Utah For Money Without First Paying $16k
Health regulations
The question is though whether all such regulations are necessary, and that is why such regulations must be implemented properly and with care. In this case, it's obvious that the regulation was abused much more for the purpose of stifling upcoming competition rather than actually caring for the safety of consumers. It's pretty clear too that removing the regulation on hair-braiding activities won't significantly harm anyone, so do away with it already!
On the post: USTR Needs To Reread Both The Constitution & The Definition Of Transparency
USTR's definition of transparency
If transparency is what it should be, then a two-way mirror would reveal someone in front of the mirror to someone behind the mirror, but the person in front of the mirror would only see a reflection.
If transparency is what the USTR thinks it should be, then a two-way mirror would reveal both a reflection and the imagine of someone behind the mirror to someone in front of the mirror, but the person behind the mirror sees nothing.
We are behind the mirror, and the USTR is in front of it. Real transparency should be the first case: the USTR sees its own negotiations and so should we (even if we are not allowed to actively contribute, which would still be a bad thing). USTR-style transparency is the second case: the USTR sees its own negotiations and sees us, claims that we can see it too, but we see nothing at all.
On the post: Speak Out Against Copyright Holders Destroying True Property Rights
Re: Re:
If a young child has imaginary friends, that's OK for a while, but that child should have a good number of real friends as well.
If that child promises to play with the real friends but uses the imaginary friends to drive away the real friends and break real friendships, that's a serious problem.
Now replace "child" with "politician" and "friend" with "property". The scenario is still very troubling.
On the post: Speak Out Against Copyright Holders Destroying True Property Rights
Re:
(Also, why did my previous 2 comments disappear?)
On the post: Every Successful New Technology Has Created Panic From Those It Disrupts
Re: Re: Re: busy guy
At this point, all I can ask you to do is take some medication and stay away from this thread for some time so that you can regain your ability to form cogent arguments and make insightful comments here like you have done in the past. As for me, I will not reply to any new comments on this thread so that I too can keep my sanity intact.
On the post: Being Pissed Off Doesn't Mean You Have A Legal Claim
I'm angry
I'm angry at TechDirt for pointing this inconvenient fact out, so I'm going to slap TechDirt with a DMCA takedown!
[/sarcasm]
On the post: Every Successful New Technology Has Created Panic From Those It Disrupts
Re: busy guy
That said, I think I and the other commenters have responded to most of your previous comments, so I will not discuss that again in this context. What I will say will be in response to this particular comment.
Yes, my real name is in fact Prashanth. It is comes from a word of Sanskritic origin meaning "peace", so "Prashanth" as a name means "one who is peaceful". Typically my personality is that way, so while I won't apologize for holding a position on economics with which you and I disagree, I do apologize if at any point I let my emotions get the better of me in this comment thread. Deeper in the thread, I have tried to be careful to separate my own emotions from what I have learned about rational microeconomic analysis, but I can't guarantee that I haven't slipped up somewhere else in that thread.
This particular comment of yours seems to be rather over-the-top in its anger and vitriol against me, other commenters who don't necessarily agree with the Austrian school of economics, and the government in general, and I can tell that it is the culmination of a buildup of anger in general over all of the comments you have left on this article. (By the way, if you want to quit your job because you either have made your fortune or you are willing to depend upon either the state or the kindness of others, that is totally up to you. No one is stopping you from retiring/quitting your job early. You'll just have to have some sort of safety net to be able to subsist, either from your own savings or from someone else.) I hope that you aren't having problems at home or work, and I hope that you aren't having any financial or other troubles. Moreover, I hope that whatever may make you angry outside of TechDirt isn't the cause of your rather vitriolic comments. If you are having issues, please do take a holiday or something, get some rest, perhaps take an aspirin, and tell your family and friends how much you love and appreciate them.
I've quickly browsed through your website C4SIF, and it actually looks eminently reasonable. Sure, I may not agree with all of it, but I agree with a lot of it, and it makes me happy to see people like Michele Boldrin there too (because I really liked the book Against Intellectual Monopoly). Considering that we seem to agree on a lot of things that come up on TechDirt, it's really a shame that my little comment about antitrust legislation had to lead to this point. I hope that we can move on from here with minimal to no hard feelings and that we can continue to complement (and compliment) each others' posts about stuff like patent/copyright reform, et cetera.
Cheers!
On the post: Every Successful New Technology Has Created Panic From Those It Disrupts
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: One disagreement
Your idea of voting being a currency seems pretty interesting, but I'm not sure it's the right way to abstract the functions of a government. I will say though that the government hiring police officers, lawyers, et cetera to enforce laws does happen in a market for such people (whether that market is competitive or oligopolistic).
Finally, I always appreciate engaging in discussions like this. It also helps me think about and solidify/modify my own understanding of basic economics more too.
PS: Isn't it odd that Mr. Kinsella left this discussion rather early? (Teehee!)
PPS: WHYISTHETEXTSOTHIN???
On the post: Every Successful New Technology Has Created Panic From Those It Disrupts
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: One disagreement
Now regarding your other comment, the reason why several things like war, disease, taxes, and government action are considered non-market issues is because those things typically (though there are of course exceptions) do not spring from a voluntary transaction between a laborer acting as a consumer and a seller in another market. Plus, my original statement was that citizens could enact changes upon corporations through voting for new laws and new enforcement of said laws; this is not a market action because it does not involve the voluntary transaction between consumers and the given corporation, but instead involves consumers routing around that market and using the threat of legal action (as opposed to market action) to force the corporation to behave a certain way.
Also, wow, this thread has gone quite a number of levels deep, and WHYISTHETEXTSOTHIN???
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