[WikiEN-l] More Murdochry

[Samuel Klein]

On Mon, Jun 7, 2010 at 5:03 AM, Charles Matthews
<charles.r.matthews at ntlworld.com> wrote:
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jun/07/james-murdoch-british-library
>
> James Murdoch criticises the British Library's plans to digitise old
> newspapers. And I quote: "public sector interest is to distribute
> content for near zero cost – harming the market in so doing ..."
>
> I think the WMF should be getting a hearing in this debate. Every page
> of free content we post does clearly remove someone else's chance to
> profit from selling that content.

It's not all that clear that it removes anyone's chance to profit.
Most of these long-tail 'markets' are rate limited by how hard it is
to find the material in question, or to identify subsets of it that
are popular.  Having a digital PD copy that's easy for fans to find,
categorize, remix, and collate into other works can make publishing
easier.

> I want to hear the argument that the
> Murdoch line is nothing better than an attempt to justify "enclosing the
> commons" simply because someone can then profit. You have to look at
> whose land it was in the first place, not whether the result can be monetised.

Hear, hear.

SJ