“I think the model will change and you won’t pay for the window of availability. A movie will come out and you will have 17 days, that’s exactly three weekends, which is 95% of the revenue for 98% of movies. On the 18th day, these movies will be available everywhere ubiquitously and you will pay …
The Capital Creators, Piketty and Growth Theory
Something new has happened in economics this month: an influential academic book has been written. Actually, I should say something old has happened because there was a day that academic economists wrote books that had influence. My guess is that it has been about four decades since someone has put original research in the form …
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"Free to air" really means that broadcasters have no case
The US Supreme Court is currently hearing a fascinating copyright case. It has been brought be Aereo, a company that streams 'free to air' or broadcast television over the internet to people's computers. It costs for $8 a month for them for which the broadcasters receive -- dum dum dah -- nothing. Well, except the …
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The first unit is expensive: Wu-Tang Clan edition
A month ago, the music group, Wu-Tang Clan decided to do something we 'economics of digitisation' folks have always dreamed about: they decided to make just one unit of their next album. The plan is for the album to first make a tour of festivals, museums and galleries (no dates or locations have been set, however), …
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A week with Vox
The new economics/politics/news website, Vox.com, launched a week ago. It is one of many independent ventures cropping up that are well financed and are attempting to give us the future of the news media. What I have been particular interested in is where it will be in this space. And here are my thoughts based …
The Anatomy of Imitation
In February, at the height of the Flappy Bird fad, a game called, Threes, was released in the app store. It had the addictive quality of Flappy Bird but it was not nearly so pointless and required, for want of a better word, 'thought.' It was also a polished game. Great music. Very fluid design. …
Can economists forecast technological progress?
As regular readers know, my co-blogger Erik Brynjolfsson has been in a continuing debate with Bob Gordon about what the next few decades are likely to bring technology-wise. There is no easy resolution of that debate as it ultimately depends on your view regarding whether technological progress will continue to have an impact on productivity …
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A quick question on virtual currency taxation
I'm no tax expert, but it seems to me that the IRS ruling that digital currency will be treated like property rather than currency has widespread ramifications for those in the US. The reason is this. Capital gains on property are taxed at 15% while gains made through currency fluctuations are taxed at 23% (this …
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No business built on teenager demand is sustainable
Perhaps the most common ‘doom and gloom’ cry for businesses — especially Internet businesses — is that teenagers, who were once their main customers, are ‘leaving in droves.’ The great example of this is Facebook where it is often claimed that it will be overtaken by Snapchat or the like because teenagers are leaving to other places. Thus, they will either …
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Strong versus Weak Net Neutrality
Yesterday, Netflix's Reed Hastings came out strongly in favour of 'strong' net neutrality in a blog post: The essence of net neutrality is that ISPs such as AT&T and Comcast don't restrict, influence or otherwise meddle with the choices consumers make. The traditional form of net neutrality which was recently overturned by a Verizon lawsuit …
Digitopoly 