Doctorow Says Google & Amazon Stifle Progress

An anonymous reader writes "Google and Amazon are 'a danger to everyone involved in the creative industries' because they act as the intermediary between creators and audiences, says Boing Boing editor Cory Doctorow. He warns that the corporate giants will 'only fear competition from other established giants ... companies whose character as gatekeepers of video distribution and discovery won't be substantially different.' The solution, he says, is to use copyrights to lower the cost of entering the market. 'For so long as copyright holders think like short-timers, seeking a quick buck instead of a healthy competitive marketplace, they're doomed to work for their gatekeepers,' he says."

Comments

And Way Back in 2007...

[RobotRunAmok]

...Doctorow published his grocery list. Slashdot trumped that up into a story as well

Taco -- Please, d00d, we're begging you. Maybe he's great fun and always buys a round at the parties and conferences you both frequent, but the boy has jumped the shark. Ya gotta learn to separate your work from your personal...

Re:Inconsistency Alert

[kklein]

Doctorow is a revolutionary, plain and simple. It doesn't matter what happens; it has to be overthrown. He is a tiresome blowhard and I often fantasize about giving him a wedgie in public. I've never given a wedgie in my life (I was usually the recipient, probably like a lot of Slashdotters), but he drags discourse down to that level.

Re:Actually, it is quite a fitting analogy.

[R2.0]

"The Roman Catholic church has stifled diversity and innovation in religion specifically because the Pope and priests pose as intermediaries between between the parishioners and their god. Just ask Martin Luther. He couldn't even get the "Church" to allow him to translate the Bible into his native language so individuals could determine for themselves what it actually said and meant."

But the problem is that the Bible is NOT a coherent work - it is self contradictory and inconsistent. So when lay people read the bible and are confused, you get 1 of 2 results:

1) The reader chooses which particular part he believes in, and then proceeds on that path under the confidence that he is doing the right thing "because the Bible told him so", or...

2) The reader goes to another person, and expert, and asks them to interpret it for them.

Yes, Martin Luther freed us from the yoke of Church hierarchy and corruption, but he's also gave us Creationism, Fundamentalism, and televangelists. Careful what you wish for...