Because the thing that caps measure isn't scarce. That maintenance and upgrading you're talking about wasn't refilling a network that was running low on terabytes, it was increasing the speed and capacity of the network. Those are the things that should be charged for and managed, not the total number or bits transferred to a device.
Bits per second have a cost, not the absolute number of bits used. The rate at which bits are transferred is the only limitation on the number of bits an ISP can supply a person with in a month. A provider with a 3G or 4G network isn't going to feel any greater a load if I download one gigabyte per week than if I download two gigabytes or a hundred megabytes, provided my downloads all happen at the same rate. With that in mind, charging more for faster service is okay, but pretending that the fifth gigabyte delivered at 1 mbps is harder to provide than the fourth at the same speed is pointless.
I like the rush hour traffic comparison, because it's a similar situation: too many people trying to get through a limited access space at the same time. And, like with the Internet, telling someone they shouldn't drive somewhere at noon because there was a traffic jam a week ago at seven would make no sense.
Probably not. Valve's ridiculous level of success hasn't influenced the major video game publishers, and no one seems to care what Google has to say despite it being the most successful organization since Catholicism. People tend to get very attached to their methods even at the expense of their objectives, and organizations are even worse, so I suspect the best option is to work around them and try to minimize the damage caused by the methods.
The only problem you're having is you're looking at the wrong company. Apple's really big on control: they've fought to prevent paying customers from getting administrator access to their legally purchased iThings. What they are not big on is competition. Those factors combined lead to them demanding licensing fees from Google for daring to make smartphones with slide-to-unlock systems or something. And that bring us to the other major player in the field of tiny touchscreen thingies: Google, who released their operating system's source code into the wild, thereby doing exactly what you're suggesting major companies should be doing. So there are companies like Apple doing what we're suggesting, just not Apple.
As for making the case of weaker IP making them more powerful, that's what stuff like this article is trying to do. It's hard, though, when one person says "copying" or "sharing" and the other hears "stealing".
The point is that the existence of IP in a successful economy is not proof that the economy was successful because of IP. Pointing out America's economic success in conjunction with its having IP laws is just as much a logical fallacy as doing so with public schooling, unionization, immigration, or corn.
Now, as for presenting you with a copyright-free planet, you're not entitled to that proof. That is not evidence that could reasonably be expected to be found prior to either a definitive resolution of this argument or First Contact. You're going to have to be satisfied with the data we have on mere industries without copyright or patent, and on companies and people in other industries that don't take their enforcement very seriously. You've been dismissing them because they're "the exception", as if the fact that more industries use copyright and patents is relevant in a discussion about their effectiveness, but in a world where copyright is the standard, they're the best proof of IP's uselessness that anyone could reasonably be expected to have.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: ... and all studies reaching differing conclusions ...
You're still assuming that innovation that happened under this system would not have happened under another, when every possible indication is that that's false. A lack of IP protections is not an untried system that nobody is sure of. There are cases, in real life, of real companies and entire real industries forgoing exclusive control of their works, and it has not destroyed them. The article that we're having this discussion under is about those cases.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: ... and all studies reaching differing conclusions ...
Firstly, you're still working from the assumption that IP causes innovation. As fashion and furniture clearly demonstrate, that it not the case.
Second, our IP laws have not been consistent. For the first half of the century a work's copyright could expire while the author was still alive, and that didn't seem to kill art. So the idea that our current laws are what caused our success, and are therefore inviolable, is simply false, no matter how you think IP in general might have affected it.
Third, your logic is that because we've done well, no aspect of the economy can be worth complaining about. There's no system we've had for the last century that you think might be worth fixing? You're perfectly happy with the state of public schooling in America, and think unions have just the right amount of power? Do you think that our immigration laws are exactly perfect? Do you think we should've been satisfied with landlines and allowed cell phones to die? If not, how dare you complain about something that hasn't destroyed us yet. You're just like a spoiled rich person.
Re: Re: Re: ... and all studies reaching differing conclusions ...
Your assumption that the conditions in which an innovation occurred must have all contributed to its success is fallacious. It's entirely possible for something to happen in spite of particular conditions, and given that, as someone else here mentioned, the lag between invention and adoption of basic computer technologies was about how long it would take for a patent to expire, that would seem to be the case.
As for your comparison to air, what happens when someone is deprived of air is well-documented: they suffocate. Drowning, pillow over the face, or a hole in a space suit all have more specific anticipations than just "if the air goes away, we're pretty sure something bad will happen". The exact rate of decline in health can be predicted, given a few other factors. Everyone who is deprived of air and dies is a crude form of study. There are, in fact, industries that lack intellectual property protection. That they're doing very well for themselves instead of dying is telling.
Just look around you my friend. We have lived with workers' unions in the US for a very long time, and the US is the envy of the world when it comes to economic progress in the last 100 years.
All the evidence you need is right in front of you, unless of course you choose to ignore it.
Just look around you my friend. We have lived with a constant flow of immigrants in the US for a very long time, and the US is the envy of the world when it comes to economic progress in the last 100 years.
All the evidence you need is right in front of you, unless of course you choose to ignore it.
Just look around you my friend. We have lived with fire codes in the US for a very long time, and the US is the envy of the world when it comes to economic progress in the last 100 years.
All the evidence you need is right in front of you, unless of course you choose to ignore it.
Just look around you my friend. We have lived with corn in the US for a very long time, and the US is the envy of the world when it comes to economic progress in the last 100 years.
All the evidence you need is right in front of you, unless of course you choose to ignore it.
"Guilty until proven dead" was a legal philosophy pioneered by the Spanish Inquisition and the good people of Salem. Who are you to question something with so much historical precedent?
They could, but I don't see why it would help. Has Cthulhu Saves The World really damaged Call of Cthulhu's sales, and would Thculhu Saves The World be that much better?
Really? A game that contains the phrase "fus ro dah" will harm Skyrim's sales? Are people only allowed one game to fulfill their Force Balance Push needs?
On the post: The Stupidity Of Data Caps: No One Knows What A Megabyte Is
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Nobody Needs To Know
On the post: The Stupidity Of Data Caps: No One Knows What A Megabyte Is
Re: Re: Re: Nobody Needs To Know
On the post: The Stupidity Of Data Caps: No One Knows What A Megabyte Is
Re: Re: Re: Nobody Needs To Know
On the post: The Stupidity Of Data Caps: No One Knows What A Megabyte Is
Re: Re: Re: Nobody Needs To Know
On the post: Study: Sharing Patents, Rather Than Blocking Others, Encourages Innovation And Market Success
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
On the post: Study: Sharing Patents, Rather Than Blocking Others, Encourages Innovation And Market Success
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
As for making the case of weaker IP making them more powerful, that's what stuff like this article is trying to do. It's hard, though, when one person says "copying" or "sharing" and the other hears "stealing".
On the post: Study: Sharing Patents, Rather Than Blocking Others, Encourages Innovation And Market Success
Re: Re: Re:
Now, as for presenting you with a copyright-free planet, you're not entitled to that proof. That is not evidence that could reasonably be expected to be found prior to either a definitive resolution of this argument or First Contact. You're going to have to be satisfied with the data we have on mere industries without copyright or patent, and on companies and people in other industries that don't take their enforcement very seriously. You've been dismissing them because they're "the exception", as if the fact that more industries use copyright and patents is relevant in a discussion about their effectiveness, but in a world where copyright is the standard, they're the best proof of IP's uselessness that anyone could reasonably be expected to have.
On the post: Study: Sharing Patents, Rather Than Blocking Others, Encourages Innovation And Market Success
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: ... and all studies reaching differing conclusions ...
On the post: Study: Sharing Patents, Rather Than Blocking Others, Encourages Innovation And Market Success
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: ... and all studies reaching differing conclusions ...
Second, our IP laws have not been consistent. For the first half of the century a work's copyright could expire while the author was still alive, and that didn't seem to kill art. So the idea that our current laws are what caused our success, and are therefore inviolable, is simply false, no matter how you think IP in general might have affected it.
Third, your logic is that because we've done well, no aspect of the economy can be worth complaining about. There's no system we've had for the last century that you think might be worth fixing? You're perfectly happy with the state of public schooling in America, and think unions have just the right amount of power? Do you think that our immigration laws are exactly perfect? Do you think we should've been satisfied with landlines and allowed cell phones to die? If not, how dare you complain about something that hasn't destroyed us yet. You're just like a spoiled rich person.
On the post: Study: Sharing Patents, Rather Than Blocking Others, Encourages Innovation And Market Success
Re: Re: Re: ... and all studies reaching differing conclusions ...
As for your comparison to air, what happens when someone is deprived of air is well-documented: they suffocate. Drowning, pillow over the face, or a hole in a space suit all have more specific anticipations than just "if the air goes away, we're pretty sure something bad will happen". The exact rate of decline in health can be predicted, given a few other factors. Everyone who is deprived of air and dies is a crude form of study. There are, in fact, industries that lack intellectual property protection. That they're doing very well for themselves instead of dying is telling.
On the post: Study: Sharing Patents, Rather Than Blocking Others, Encourages Innovation And Market Success
Re: Re:
On the post: Study: Sharing Patents, Rather Than Blocking Others, Encourages Innovation And Market Success
Re:
All the evidence you need is right in front of you, unless of course you choose to ignore it.
Just look around you my friend. We have lived with a constant flow of immigrants in the US for a very long time, and the US is the envy of the world when it comes to economic progress in the last 100 years.
All the evidence you need is right in front of you, unless of course you choose to ignore it.
Just look around you my friend. We have lived with fire codes in the US for a very long time, and the US is the envy of the world when it comes to economic progress in the last 100 years.
All the evidence you need is right in front of you, unless of course you choose to ignore it.
Just look around you my friend. We have lived with corn in the US for a very long time, and the US is the envy of the world when it comes to economic progress in the last 100 years.
All the evidence you need is right in front of you, unless of course you choose to ignore it.
I could go on.
On the post: Study: Sharing Patents, Rather Than Blocking Others, Encourages Innovation And Market Success
Re:
On the post: US Gov't Says Megaupload Shouldn't Be Allowed To Use Top Law Firm It Hired For Its Defense
Re: Re: Re: Re: good news
On the post: US Gov't Says Megaupload Shouldn't Be Allowed To Use Top Law Firm It Hired For Its Defense
Re: Re: good news
On the post: Ridiculous White House Report Pretends Getting Copyrights, Patents & Trademarks Means You Benefit From Them
Re: Re: Re: Re: "IP-Intensive"
On the post: Zenimax Files For Trademark On A Skyrim Internet Meme
Re: Re: Re:
On the post: CISPA Authors Launch Twitter Account To Preach False Merits Of The Bill
Re: I remember...
On the post: Zenimax Files For Trademark On A Skyrim Internet Meme
Re:
On the post: Zenimax Files For Trademark On A Skyrim Internet Meme
Re: More plausible explanation
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