Posted on 04/21/2004 6:04:11 PM PDT by NonValueAdded
... let's put the argument where it belongs: in Chat and not in the body of a most excellent article post from the master himself.
Here is what I posted in the latest quidnunc excerpted Steyn article post:
Oh dear Lord ... another fascinating Steyn article sullied by lots of kvetching about quid posting an excerpt. Some of the complainers even note that quid is notorious for posting excerpts. HELLO quit your griping and post your own full copy if you wish. Get a free email account on Yahoo! or even the new Google, use it for your signups, turn on the spam filter, and never bother to check the inbox again.That should get things stirred up a bit. Let's all have it out here and stop adding the petty complaining to each and every posting of a Mark Steyn column!OR ... are you Communists? That's right ... communists. Believers in the old "from each according to his ability to each according to their need" crapola. Steyn certainly has the ability, do you begrudge him the clicks and hits to fund the payment for his brilliance? Is your "need" to view his work for free?
Your click helps the publisher make some money that partially goes to pay Mark Steyn's fee and the hit count lets the publisher know that Mark Steyn is worthy of whatever he charges (and quite frankly should be one of the highest paid columnists going given his consistent brilliance!!!).
So there you go ... shot out ... add 50 and fire for effect. I've reposted this commentary in chat here so fire up your flamethrowers and join me over there and stop sullying up another Steyn gem.
Let the flames begin.
Honestly, no.
But I have often found many of these articles at the original site, had a comment I wanted to make, and looked for and found the article on FR where there was a debate in progress. If FR becomes a "link" site it loses its stickiness because people are always being pulled off the site in new directions.
Copyright infringment via the Internet is becoming a hot topic, and some copyright holders are becoming very aggressive in their efforts to protect their property — and make no mistake, it is intellelectual property.
Jim Robinson himself stated just recently that the day was not far off when excerpting would have to be required on FR.
We are seeing more very good sites, such as the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, placed behind subscription-only firewalls.
And more and more sites are putting their content on-line in the form of non-copyable PDFs.
And if the stuff really hits the fan and the Associated Press decides to sue FR and a couple of hundred posters for copyright infringment then my excerpted posts are going to be the least of your problems.
While my communist comment was primarily joking, the real argument concerns capitalism (I'm in favor). You are correct that it is all intellectual property and one by one, publishers are coming to a realization that there is gold in them thar pages. Perhaps by giving our clicks to the sites, honoring their property rights (after all, Mark Steyn is not donating his articles to them, is he?), we will generate enough ad revenue and hit count to allow them to remain free of charge. Or perhaps all we will do is demonstrate that there is enough demand that a modest access fee is feasible. What a can of worms.
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