Abstract: A free-market model is proposed which follows the current file-sharing trend to its logical conclusion. This model both preserves profits for the content publishing industry and, paradoxically, serves to reinforce the standard business model. This is accomplished by dispensing entirely with the notion of intellectual property rights and allowing the price of content to be determined naturally by market dynamics. All users of content have equal rights to distribute the content, and to profit from distribution. It is shown that this situation creates healthy profit for the content creator, with asymptotically diminishing returns for distributors on progressively lower rungs of the distribution network. At the bottom of the distribution network are the end users, who necessarily pay a fair price for content. This process is illustrated by way of a computer simulation.
(PS: The primary example in the article is music, but Donis argues that the concept applies just as well to "scientific research results, and other kinds of data.")
Posted by
Peter Suber at 1/18/2006 02:46:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
