Capitalism is supposed to be a way of dealing with scarcity, not maintaining it in the face of its oncoming abolition by technology. You are a bourgeoisie screaming that the Revolution has come and you don't like its shape ;-).
I agree with you, but moving to a post-scarcity bit-distribution model is, in its way, inevitable. After all, how much does the RIAA/MPAA claim as the "pirated" value of "their" content? As I recall, it adds up, in some estimates, to more than the current size of their industry, and possibly even more money than exists in the entire economy (of some nations if not of the United States).
Why should we destroy all that value by rendering it illegal through copyright-based rent-seeking? Plainly we shouldn't.
But filmmakers, programmers, authors and other bit-producers need to eat too, need to somehow interface our desired post-scarcity "pirate economy" with the scarcity-based rentier capitalism of the current "material economy" to pay rent, buy food, carry health insurance, etc.
So the question is, how do we interface post-scarcity with scarcity to let people work in the former world but eat dinner in the latter?
Bourgeoisie? :) I worked my way up from nothing and my perspective is simply that of someone who has seen the industry from several different angles.
Also, like any sane person, I believe that pirates are only frustrated consumers (I know I am).
But where does that leave us... how do you keep humanity entertained while "software is eating the world."
What does that technology look like? For distribution, is it an open standards network of p2p+affiliate marketing+an index fund? For creators, will it be a cost equalizing combo of reality-emulating audio engines and photorealistic cloud rendering of user-friendly 3D modeling? What happens to the concept of celebrity (celebrities = risk mitigation for movies)?
I personally think it's important to step back and think about the user experience of a movie. Can you succeed in delighting users and negating Hollywood at the same time?
> For creators, will it be a cost equalizing combo of reality-emulating audio engines and photorealistic cloud rendering of user-friendly 3D modeling?
Oh hi, you're describing my start up ^^ So yea, I personally am betting my money that's how the future looks like for creators. In the future, you might not be able to fund a $500m Avatar. But the bet is you won't need to, because you'll be able to produce something much better with much less money. With better technology, costs decrease. Or at least I'm working everyday to make that happen :)
As for celebrities, that will always exists. There are many e-celebs today that got famous for playing games professionally, b/vlogging or podcasts etc. And there will always be people willing to pay to see them. So there will always be an economy for them regardless of which route technology goes to.
Without wishing to get too sidetracked on this one, I think this is a fundamentally different debate.
There is a difference between suggesting that a certain industry may have seen it's hayday and suggesting a fundamental top down restructure of much of society.
It confuses me in debates like this because you have one set of people wanting to create new startups to displace hollywood and another wanting to kill IP altogether and they seem to act like they agree with eachother.
I agree with you, but moving to a post-scarcity bit-distribution model is, in its way, inevitable. After all, how much does the RIAA/MPAA claim as the "pirated" value of "their" content? As I recall, it adds up, in some estimates, to more than the current size of their industry, and possibly even more money than exists in the entire economy (of some nations if not of the United States).
Why should we destroy all that value by rendering it illegal through copyright-based rent-seeking? Plainly we shouldn't.
But filmmakers, programmers, authors and other bit-producers need to eat too, need to somehow interface our desired post-scarcity "pirate economy" with the scarcity-based rentier capitalism of the current "material economy" to pay rent, buy food, carry health insurance, etc.
So the question is, how do we interface post-scarcity with scarcity to let people work in the former world but eat dinner in the latter?