Better than Free (2008)

Better than Free (2008)(kk.org)

62 points by martynr 3 years ago | 20 comments

JohnFen 3 years ago |

I find it interesting that he started the essay talking about trust as an example of something that can't be copied, but omits it from his 8 points.

I think it should be the very first point in his list. Trust in software is a thing that is increasingly lacking in the general population, and not without reasons. Being actually trustworthy is increasingly valuable.

dang 3 years ago |

Related (and mostly surprisingly sparse) threads:

Better Than Free (2008) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28129338 - Aug 2021 (3 comments)

Better Than Free (2008) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21165460 - Oct 2019 (5 comments)

Better than Free (2008) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14431233 - May 2017 (52 comments)

Better Than Free - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=500222 - March 2009 (1 comment)

Better Than Free - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=384848 - Dec 2008 (2 comments)

Better than free - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=108559 - Feb 2008 (6 comments)

martynr 3 years ago | |

Thanks- did do a search before posting but (to my surprise) I only found 1 of the earlier posts.

On investigation this is because I searched the https:// url of the article. Note to self to be more thorough in future.

bern4444 3 years ago |

One missed point is recourse.

When something goes wrong with a digital product and the problem needs to be resolved, you will only get help if you've paid and there is a business behind the product and a legal system in place to allow for recourse - getting your money back, resolving the problem etc.

If you downloaded that product for free, you have no recourse because there is no authority providing any service beyond the data itself.

jamager 3 years ago |

> Ownership often sucks [...] Many people, me included, will be happy to have others tend our “possessions” by subscribing to them

Funny, I think the opposite.

JohnFen 3 years ago | |

I was going to say the same thing. I really hate subscriptions, especially for software, and won't do them.

breck 3 years ago |

> These eight qualities require a new skill set. Success in the free-copy world is not derived from the skills of distribution since the Great Copy Machine in the Sky takes care of that. Nor are legal skills surrounding Intellectual Property and Copyright very useful anymore. Nor are the skills of hoarding and scarcity. Rather, these new eight generatives demand an understanding of how abundance breeds a sharing mindset, how generosity is a business model, how vital it has become to cultivate and nurture qualities that can’t be replicated with a click of the mouse.

> In short, the money in this networked economy does not follow the path of the copies. Rather it follows the path of attention, and attention has its own circuits.

Well said!

martynr 3 years ago |

Prescient comment on what becomes valuable when the cost of production essentially becomes irrelevant. Becoming more important as time passes.

Ologn 3 years ago | |

The cost of production for the base product hasn't become irrelevant, the cost of the inductive product has become irrelevant. The cost for an AAA single player game going gold is expensive, but once done - selling the next copy costs next to nothing. Same with the budget of a movie like Way of Water - it costs hundreds of millions to make, but distribution costs are very low after that.

martynr 3 years ago | | |

Fair point, probably should have said something like “[marginal cost of re-]production”

quanticle 3 years ago |

    Once anything that can be copied is brought into contact with internet, it
    will be copied, and those copies never leave. Even a dog knows you can’t
    erase something once it’s flowed on the internet.

I wish people would stop repeating this trope. The internet does forget. Try pulling up any blog post or article that's more than two or three years old. Click on some of the links. How many of them are still up? Of the ones that are down, how many were saved by the Internet Archive?

Darkstryder 3 years ago | |

To me, Internet's permanentness should be treated according to Murphy's law: you should plan for everything you wish would go down to stay up indefinitely and everything you wish would stay up to go down at some point.

agumonkey 3 years ago | |

Internet is like the IRS, it will never forget something that resonates with its structure, but some stuff you will never find again. Your nudes and memes ? replicated everywhere and ready to spill. That amazing article about an interesting topic .. 404.

zelphirkalt 3 years ago |

The Internet is a copy machine, but often copies reside all in one branch of a tree standing in a walled garden, until someone comes along with an axe, chops that branch off and burns the wood.

Once anything that can be copied is brought into contact with internet, it will be copied, and those copies never leave. Even a dog knows you can’t erase something once it’s flowed on the internet.