IP: WHEN people can easily copy anything digital, who's going to make $100 million movies?

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

>From: "Gillmor, Dan" <DGillmor@sjmercury.com>
>To: "'farber@cis.upenn.edu'" <farber@cis.upenn.edu>
>
>http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/columns/gillmor/docs/dg061100.htm
>
>WHEN people can easily copy anything digital, who's going to make $100
>million movies?
>
>That question, asked by a colleague recently, is the crux of the debate over
>the growing genre of software that lets people share music around the
>Internet. The fight over Napster and its progeny is about something much
>bigger: Soon enough, technology will allow people to share any kind of
>digital information -- music, movies, software programs, you name it -- and
>it's taking a meat ax to some modern business models.
>
>It's also at the heart of a question we'll need to answer in not too many
>decades from now. When people can replicate anything, who'll go to the
>trouble or expense of designing a new passenger airplane or life-saving
>medical device?