Book publishers are struggling with eBook lending. The latest to have a problem is Penguin who announced last week they would opt out of library lending programs citing security concerns. (They subsequently softened their exit to something temporary). The Penguin move specifically highlighted the Kindle lending program. Of course, this is just the latest following …
Betting on content is king
It was Bill Gates who coined the term, "content is king" back in an article written in 1996. The idea defines where the money comes from on the Internet. Gates wrote: Content is where I expect much of the real money will be made on the Internet, just as it was in broadcasting. The article …
Mobile mergers and insider baseball conversations
Here is a fact. The FCC recently announced it would move to have a hearing about the AT&T and T-Mobile merger. In response, AT&T withdrew its application from the FCC, delaying the hearing indefinitely (or until AT&T resubmits the application). What is that all about? At a procedural level it is just a detail -- …
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A Wikipedia Story
A couple of years ago, I made a 'less than scholarly' edit to Wikipedia; specifically the entry on public good. Here is a video of what I did and what happened. It illustrates how the Wikipedian community defends the platform and why that is so strong. In this case, my assault on the public good …
Word of mouth and pepper spray parody
For better or worse, a decade of development in web technology enables the fast sharing of imagery. "Word of mouth" used to occur verbally, but some part of it now occurs online. What has moved online soonest? Things that are easy to share with one click. It tends towards the quick hit: Pictures that tell …
The Facebook Parents' Dilemma: COPPA and my daughter turn 13
Recently, I became the proud father of a 13 year old daughter. I can't say it was unexpected (I had a good handle on the notion for about 13 years), it still comes as a shock. The day was greeted, of course, from a letter from the Disney Corporation. Dear Parent or Guardian of xxxxxxx, …
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Netflix's exclusivity play
Following what was likely an intense bidding war, Netflix have won the rights to exclusively 'broadcast' the new Arrested Development series in 2013. Of course, as a fan of Arrested Development, I'm thrilled that new episodes are coming. But what does it mean for Netflix and broadcasting? Why exclusivity? The theory behind exclusivity is that …
Cultural clashes in science
On This American Life this week, is a podcast devoted to the subject of "So Crazy it might just work." Now if you are interested in scientific discovery, its culture and openness, go and listen to the first half of that podcast right now. I'll wait. OK, all done? I'm not going to discuss the …
Are Digital Resale Markets Legal? Should They Be?
The other day I came across an article at Ars technica about ReDigi. You may have heard of ReDigi. They resell digital goods. Me, I was puzzled, so I emailed Ben Shiller, who has just finished his dissertation about resale digital markets. His dissertation is called “Digital Downloads and the Prohibition of Resale Markets for …
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Is the Sky Falling? The Quality of New Recorded Music since Napster
This essay first appeared at Vox EU on Nov 14, 2011. Since the appearance of Napster a dozen years ago, intellectual property rights have effectively been substantially weakened. Unfettered stealing has caused revenues to the recorded music industry to tumble by roughly a third. While this reversal has prompted academic chin-scratching over its cause, most …
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Digitopoly 