Looks like at least one well known author of text books is (gasp) trying to reduce the cost of educational materials while increasing quality by providing his latest educational content as a service at gradiance.com. One way to sign up for the service is to buy a book for $15.
I really think there will be some kind of securities market based solution for paying free content producers in 25 years, and this is a step in that direction. It's not a pyramid scheme, because when you put money into the hands of *highly productive* free content producers, they will make enough free content to ensure increasing overall wealth/intrinsic value in the economy to keep the market prices rising so that all good investors can expect a return on their investment in the long term. The bigger the market gets, the more efficiently in will distribute money because knowing people will be able to profit from incorrectly priced shares. This is the model we want, because outright donations will be used less efficiently as they get bigger.
reputation determines value of free content
on
The FSF, Linux's Hit Men
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· Score: 2, Insightful
The GPL probably has a lot to do with the current success of free software, but I think we need to eventually phase out the GPL in favor releasing content as is without any restrictions. Information will spread about who is using who's code to do useful work, and thanks to services like Google, accurate information will rise to the top without anyone suing or threatening to sue anybody. I believe that we will one day have some kind of futures market for free content producer cards (like baseball cards) and it will efficiently reward those who add the most value to society. The GPL only tempts us to use the law to accomplish what should be accomplished by a free market. Sound familiar?
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Looks like at least one well known author of text books is (gasp) trying to reduce the cost of educational materials while increasing quality by providing his latest educational content as a service at gradiance.com. One way to sign up for the service is to buy a book for $15.
I really think there will be some kind of securities market based solution for paying free content producers in 25 years, and this is a step in that direction. It's not a pyramid scheme, because when you put money into the hands of *highly productive* free content producers, they will make enough free content to ensure increasing overall wealth/intrinsic value in the economy to keep the market prices rising so that all good investors can expect a return on their investment in the long term. The bigger the market gets, the more efficiently in will distribute money because knowing people will be able to profit from incorrectly priced shares. This is the model we want, because outright donations will be used less efficiently as they get bigger.
The GPL probably has a lot to do with the current success of free software, but I think we need to eventually phase out the GPL in favor releasing content as is without any restrictions. Information will spread about who is using who's code to do useful work, and thanks to services like Google, accurate information will rise to the top without anyone suing or threatening to sue anybody. I believe that we will one day have some kind of futures market for free content producer cards (like baseball cards) and it will efficiently reward those who add the most value to society. The GPL only tempts us to use the law to accomplish what should be accomplished by a free market. Sound familiar?