[ Thanks to Robert
McMillan for this link. ]
“When it comes right down to it, the open source software
market and the music biz in the Napster era bear a remarkable
resemblance to the market for bottled water.”
“In all three places, a commercial enterprise markets an
essential product. … In all three markets, the commercial
ventures attach prestige to their product, with an implicit or
explicit promise or guarantee that their product is superior to the
freely distributed alternative… And all three types of companies
face the very real threat that if their product is unavailable,
unobtainable, or not up to spec, consumers have a freely available
alternative that they can switch to almost instantly. Broadband may
never be as pervasive as running water, but you see my point.”
“The real difference, of course, is that the bottled
water and open source marketing companies more or less knew what
they were getting into, had no legal basis to assume the world
should work any other way, and accepted the risks and conditions
necessary to do business in their chosen fields. None of these
things are true for the music industry. … Unlike water, where it
is the Nayas and Aquafinas in the world entering a market
controlled by the municipal “open source” bodies, for the music
industry it is the open distribution network coming late to the
party.”