Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Doctorow Says Google & Amazon Stifle Progress

Posted by Soulskill on from the among-others dept.

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."

6 of 162 comments (clear)

  1. Oh please by ta+bu+shi+da+yu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Saying that Amazon and Google stifle innovation because they sit as an intermediary between creators and audiences is a bit like saying the Roman Catholic church stifles religion because a priest sits between the Creator and his followers.

    --
    XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
    1. Re:Oh please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Saying that Amazon and Google stifle innovation because they sit as an intermediary between creators and audiences is a bit like saying the Roman Catholic church stifles religion because a priest sits between the Creator and his followers.

      It's more like the Roman Catholic church sits between the Faith and its followers. And they did stifle any changes from the doctrine, by torturing or murdering people who had different opinions. See the original Martin Luther, or Kepler.

  2. Sorry Cory... by russotto · · Score: 5, Insightful

    But intermediaries are never going to go away. A model where millions of creators market directly to hundreds of millions of customers just isn't going to work; the good stuff will be buried in the dreck (even worse than it is in the current system).

    1. Re:Sorry Cory... by GreatBunzinni · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The pathetic thing about mr Doctorow's comment is that the media services provided by Amazon made it possible for the very first time in the history of the music business that a nobody could market it's modest album throughout the entire world without the intervention of the established music industry. Yes, amazon and the like are still middle men but this time the middle men only acts as the communications channel, without imposing any barriers to entry or even draconian distribution contracts thatm, for example, somehow automatically put the artists millions of dollars in debt, not to mention the Hollywood accountancy. Let's see anyone do that with a geocities web site.

      --
      Slashdot, fix your code or at least hire someone who is competent at it to do it for you.
  3. Culture PRE-DATES market, Cory! by Klistvud · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The original article is just an oh-so-typical piece of American thinking, wherein money and market are the ultimate movers of everything.

    Of course, if your concept of culture stops at Coke, Pop Music and Hollywood, this may hold true. If it extends to encompass Homer, Beethoven, Boole, Sartre, or Australian aboriginal art, however, you'll have to admit there is no direct correspondence between cultural "value" and market "price". The CULTURAL value of Picasso is NOT the price of his painting as sold at the latest auction.

    Culture will go on existing even after all the Googles, Amazons, Wall Streets and Doctorows have perished.

    --
    Intellectual Property: an immaterial non-entity, most fiercely contended by those with no proper intellect to speak of.
    1. Re:Culture PRE-DATES market, Cory! by iluvcapra · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Also, culture does not last. Look at fall of the great civilizations in history - the Babolonians, the Persians, the Romans, etc.

      Wealth is even more transient. Do Crassus's children "buy power" in our modern world with the money their ancestor made? Wealth dissipates.

      I think when you misunderstand the word "culture" to mean "a civilization" or "an empire" or "a continuous polity." The Romans are gone, but you are reading this post in their alphabet, and I know who Crassus was. The cultural artifacts of Rome and Persia are with us just as much as they were when they were created. The only thing that's changed is the particular identities of the rich people who patronize them. Culture, to an extent, stands apart from politics and economy.

      In the modern world, Money buys Power. More Money = more Power, more Power = more Control.

      There are a few very, very wealthy Burmese and Iranian people that would disagree. The belief that material wealth confers political power or legitimacy is a particularly American notion. Religion, and cultural institutions like monarchies carry just as much sway.

      --
      Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.