Techdirt’s Mike Masnick, responding to a proposal for a day of sharingstealing:
Gibbs is simply showing his own ignorance of the difference between scarce and infinite goods. That’s because his “Day of Sharing” is a recommendation that people steal (yes, steal!) physical things. He claims that this will show people that sharing music is stealing — but, of course, he’s wrong. Making a copy of an infinite good is entirely different than taking a scarce good away from someone
Masnick follows with an excellent proposal for a real Day of Sharing:
However, if he wants a “Day of Sharing,” perhaps we should give it to him. On the day he’s chosen as his Day of Sharing, November 29, 2009 (the day after Thanksgiving) we should all send him copies of free, public domain or Creative Commons-licensed music from musicians who actually have an open mind on this issue and who encourage sharing, knowing that, with the right business model, it actually helps them tremendously. That would be a true Day of Sharing and would perhaps show Mr. Gibbs that perhaps things aren’t so bad as he thinks they are.
Read the whole post and mark your calendars.
If you haven’t already, also check out Masnick’s case study on the digital music business, Connect With Fans (CwF) + Reason To Buy (RtB) = The Business Model ($$$$).
I posted this idea on TechDirt, but an even better illustration would be to find pictures of Mr. Gibbs, dress up like him, and then send him pictures of ourselves claiming that his clothes were stolen.
OTOH, it might be a bit too meta for him…
I’ve got a new holiday coming out soon too. Let’s move things to the free-o-meter.
Well hello Mr. Masnick,
Actually I am quite aware of the differences between sparse and infinite goods. My question to you is this: are you aware of the damage that illegal copyright infringement has done to many innocent creators? Do you care?
I do have a very open mind on this issue – do you? I have no problem whatsoever with Creative Commons or people who choose to give away their copyright. More power to them, I hope it works for them. But I do have a problem with those who believe it is okay to wrest copyright from those who wish to retain it.
How do you feel about that?
Love the clothing idea Church. Very funny.