Most IBM patents are junk. There was a programme there that awarded any crap that people could think up - I blocked one about 3D spatial audio because the guy had absolutely no idea how his 'idea' could actually be implemented.
The only purpose of patents here is to provide weapons that IBM can bash other companies with (or prevent themselves being bashed by other company's patents). It only acts to discourage actual innovation by startups.
Okay, contrary to what seems to be the majority of opinion (perhaps Slashdot should actually run a poll on this (a useful poll, shock!)), I actually like e-books, since
I can carry several around on a PDA, unlike your average huge dead tree book.
If I happen to have a little unexpected time to kill somewhere away from home, I can just browse a book.
Also, I think some of the other concerns can be addressed. For instance, surely it's not impossible to add some way to make notes to the e-book concept?
The best of both worlds would be to put an e-book of the paper book on the included CD.
If you moved the first syllable, luck would become ayluck (because it only has one syllable). You move everything before the first vowel sound to the end, and append 'ay'.
Surely this would result in luckay (syllable goes nowhere since it's the only one then append ay.
I don't care if Napster are the 'good guys' or not.
Why do we have 5 huge record companies with 90% of the recorded music market? Because of the fact that to get music to the shops, it used to be necessary to have a distribution system which spanned the entire country. The bigger you were, the more efficient you could make this system and the greater it became for new entrants to the market, if only because of the huge capital cost which would be involved in setting up another competing network.
Napster really does change all this. By distributing music in this way it knocks out two big pillars of huge recording companies - the distribution system mentioned above and the cost of actually physically producing CDs. That's why the music industry is so scared of it. They know a very large amount of the whole market is going to go the subscription route eventually - but they want to put it off for as long as possible, both to protect their own revenues and because, I think, of a general fear of change.
So I think it's irrelevant to criticise Napster because they want to make money. There's nothing wrong with that, because some proportion of that money has to get back to the artists somehow. But by bringing in this new business model in the long term, will result in cheaper music.
Big business is always going to be a little bit evil, if only because it always excercises some amount of market power (ie, they can raise their price without losing all their customers), which means that in most reasonable cases, they end up charging a greater price than if there was more competition. True, big business (or government) are the only ones with resource at the moment to build jets and skyscrapers. But why shouldn't a set of small businesses or even individuals get together to build parts of a jet, which more enthusiasts can then construct It happens already with amateur rocket launches, etc... What we really need is a better way to coordinate and pool resources - arguably the capitalist system fails in this respect. Of course, what we really need is a decent resource allocation system which doesn't rely so much on the short-run day trader mentality.
I don't think it's impossible that in the future some of the more popular word-processing/spreadsheet/etc software might not be available to buy but only to lease.
The major reason that application service providers might be more successful in this area is much lower costs. At the moment, selling individual packages means actually getting them produced, distributed, manning technical helpdesks, etc. ASPs, though, can both capture some of the revenue which at the moment goes to distributors, and provide a smoother environment and automatic upgrades to the software.
If leasing software worked out to be cheaper and just as (if not more) reliable for the average consumer than going out and buying the package, you can see leasing really growing in popularity. People actually selling a whole package wouldn't be able to compete and would have to stop producing the software and/or start leasing it online...
I don't see a big problem here. After all, I use electricity every day but I don't feel the need to go and buy a generator just in case the power company doesn't want to give me any.
True. The record industry has become so concentrated (the big 5 having 80% of the market) because of the high costs of setting up a whole production and distribution network to stamp out the CDs and get them into the shops. Large companies benefit from the economies of scale and small companies are kept out because of the impossibly high cost of building a network.
In itself there's nothing sinister about this. But the record industry has good reason to be scared because the possibility of distributing music online knocks out the central pillars of distribution and production. Once these go, the only functions they have left are A&R and marketing. The latter may still give large companies an edge in the market place, but the former is already arguably better done than the Indies.
In the long term, I believe you can't fight the technolgy so, QED, the record companies are doomed and will soon be starting their death throes.
Slashdot Mirror
Most IBM patents are junk. There was a programme there that awarded any crap that people could think up - I blocked one about 3D spatial audio because the guy had absolutely no idea how his 'idea' could actually be implemented.
The only purpose of patents here is to provide weapons that IBM can bash other companies with (or prevent themselves being bashed by other company's patents). It only acts to discourage actual innovation by startups.
Okay, contrary to what seems to be the majority of opinion (perhaps Slashdot should actually run a poll on this (a useful poll, shock!)), I actually like e-books, since
Also, I think some of the other concerns can be addressed. For instance, surely it's not impossible to add some way to make notes to the e-book concept?
The best of both worlds would be to put an e-book of the paper book on the included CD.
Surely this would result in luckay (syllable goes nowhere since it's the only one then append ay.
Why do we have 5 huge record companies with 90% of the recorded music market? Because of the fact that to get music to the shops, it used to be necessary to have a distribution system which spanned the entire country. The bigger you were, the more efficient you could make this system and the greater it became for new entrants to the market, if only because of the huge capital cost which would be involved in setting up another competing network.
Napster really does change all this. By distributing music in this way it knocks out two big pillars of huge recording companies - the distribution system mentioned above and the cost of actually physically producing CDs. That's why the music industry is so scared of it. They know a very large amount of the whole market is going to go the subscription route eventually - but they want to put it off for as long as possible, both to protect their own revenues and because, I think, of a general fear of change.
So I think it's irrelevant to criticise Napster because they want to make money. There's nothing wrong with that, because some proportion of that money has to get back to the artists somehow. But by bringing in this new business model in the long term, will result in cheaper music.
Big business is always going to be a little bit evil, if only because it always excercises some amount of market power (ie, they can raise their price without losing all their customers), which means that in most reasonable cases, they end up charging a greater price than if there was more competition. True, big business (or government) are the only ones with resource at the moment to build jets and skyscrapers. But why shouldn't a set of small businesses or even individuals get together to build parts of a jet, which more enthusiasts can then construct It happens already with amateur rocket launches, etc... What we really need is a better way to coordinate and pool resources - arguably the capitalist system fails in this respect. Of course, what we really need is a decent resource allocation system which doesn't rely so much on the short-run day trader mentality.
The major reason that application service providers might be more successful in this area is much lower costs. At the moment, selling individual packages means actually getting them produced, distributed, manning technical helpdesks, etc. ASPs, though, can both capture some of the revenue which at the moment goes to distributors, and provide a smoother environment and automatic upgrades to the software.
If leasing software worked out to be cheaper and just as (if not more) reliable for the average consumer than going out and buying the package, you can see leasing really growing in popularity. People actually selling a whole package wouldn't be able to compete and would have to stop producing the software and/or start leasing it online...
I don't see a big problem here. After all, I use electricity every day but I don't feel the need to go and buy a generator just in case the power company doesn't want to give me any.
True. The record industry has become so concentrated (the big 5 having 80% of the market) because of the high costs of setting up a whole production and distribution network to stamp out the CDs and get them into the shops. Large companies benefit from the economies of scale and small companies are kept out because of the impossibly high cost of building a network. In itself there's nothing sinister about this. But the record industry has good reason to be scared because the possibility of distributing music online knocks out the central pillars of distribution and production. Once these go, the only functions they have left are A&R and marketing. The latter may still give large companies an edge in the market place, but the former is already arguably better done than the Indies. In the long term, I believe you can't fight the technolgy so, QED, the record companies are doomed and will soon be starting their death throes.