Better Than Free
by T. Colin Dodd
The internet is a copy machine. At its most foundational level, it copies every action, every character, every thought we make while we ride upon it. In order to send a message from one corner of the internet to another, the protocols of communication demand that the whole message be copied along the way several times. IT companies make a lot of money selling equipment that facilitates this ceaseless copying. Every bit of data ever produced on any computer is copied somewhere. The digital economy is thus run on a river of copies. Unlike the mass-produced reproductions of the machine age, these copies are not just cheap, they are free.
June 11th, 2008 at 9:04 am
This commentary suffers from a poetic, flowery idealism.
The mechanics of the internet do not copy whole messages several times anywhere.
Everything from actual content to script formatting and styles are assembled to produce the end result in your browser window. Contrary, the internet is a highly efficient just-in-time presentation mechanism, assembling final presentation just for you. Putting aside the actual details and mechanics of internet based content distribution; I can really disagree with the last sentence. “Unlike the mass-produced reproductions of the machine age, these copies are not just cheap, they are free.”
If they were truly free copies, I would only need to locate the original, and then allow someone to share it with me. Sounds like P2P. However, what I’m really paying for is not the content, but ready access to the content. The problem is that the two are inextricably inseparable. The actual value of the content - original or copy - is in the availability of the content, not the content itself.
Let me give you an analogy, the public school system. Everyone who files state and federal taxes pays in part a public school tax. Not everyone has children who will benefit from the school system. Some people have one or two children, some have six. You can quickly see the taxation system is flawed, or at least lacks equality. Yet, no child is denied an education and no one is exempt from taxes. When more funding is needed for schools, taxes can be raised across the board. Not everyone gets their commensurate value from what they pay for. It is the availability of the school system that holds greater value for some and little to no value for others.
The internet in many ways is even more equitable than the public school tax system, but still inequitable. The commercialization of the internet has replicated the familiar supply and demand theory of all products and services available for exchange. Adam Smith’s theories and writings are just as relevant in the internet economy as any other aspect of the economy.
The reason nothing is free is there is an entry fee, service fee, a prerequisite to obtain the content. If I had no internet access, no computer, no printer, or no intelligence to interpret the free content you speak of what value is it to me? No value. Consequently, I can complain and moan about paying to read a news agency business article about a stock exchange quote, even though the same information is replicated umpteen times, but that access to that content has meaning for me at this point in time. It has value to me or I wouldn’t whine about having to pay for it. Nothing is free for anyone if someone is willing to pay for it.
June 13th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
@ felsesser
I object to “The reason nothing is free is there is an entry fee, service fee, a prerequisite to obtain the content. If I had no internet access, no computer, no printer, or no intelligence to interpret the free content you speak of what value is it to me?”
Imagine if somebody is distributing free dvds of Michael Jackson or any pop rockstar 2 km far from your place, you will start complaining that i have to spend some fuel to reach him so the content is not free to me and I have no dvd player so how will i play those dvds …that does not make sense. Content is free on internet , its available to you very easily(p2p) , internet is a media and if you dont have printer then should somebody give you printer along with the information to be printed.
July 2nd, 2008 at 4:16 pm
@rohit
Quit frankly, yes, if somebody is distributing “free” DVDs and you have to spend fuel, then those free DVDs are most definitely not free to me. They have costs in both fuel and time.
It becomes much clearer if they’re giving it away in New York, and I live in San Francisco. It would cost many hundreds of dollars, and many hours of time to pick it up. Nobody would do that because the true cost of acquiring that free DVD dwarfs the value of the DVD.
Just because you don’t notice the marginal costs of acquiring material on the internet doesn’t mean that they don’t exist.
July 3rd, 2008 at 6:07 am
Whether copying is free (or not) production of content often isn’t.
July 8th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
It’s the free speech vs. free beer argument.
Free, in this case means, you have the freedom to use and copy, not that it cost nothing to create the work.
July 19th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Actually, the public school system is more like social security is supposed to be.
Your parents aren’t paying for your public schooling, and neither is anyone else. You are. Yes, many years after the fact, but ultimately you attended school, and now you are paying the taxes for it. The only real inequality here is that when taxes are raised to support schools better, you don’t suddenly have a better education for the extra money.
As far as internet goes, the access costs you money, but the content is, on the whole, free. Also, the information is copied repeatedly, even if only in volatile memory.