Separating "consumer rights" from copyright

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"The encouragement of economic goods"

I don't think you pursued your headline thought far enough John.

Consumer "rights" (read power) are a force in society that is only growing by the day. Legislation and laws most often follow the practices and attitudes of society rather than lead them.

The present model of capitalism in the early 21st century is based almost wholly upon consumerism - the consumer sets the limits of the market and the speed (or lack) of growth. Its is rapdily becoming evident that Westerb society is becoming dangerously obessed with economic growth fuelled by consumer spending. If that (cheap now) money stops whizzing around a whole lot of businesses and institutions will come crashing down.
It becomes a vicious cyle - a self fulfilling prohecy if you will. More goods must be produced to meet increasing demand for consumption which means that more is consumed and more power flows from the manufacturer to the consumer - who then demands more goods..etc etc.

Some industries are slower to pick up on this that others............and the content industry appears to be one of them. They can see the chasm yawning but don't fully appreciate the depth or breadth of it.

There is a large and growing consumer demand for content that is cheap, highly portable and "new". Content companies think they can meet this demand within their prestn business models...

Consumers are saying otherwise.

Sure..the big lobby money in the US comes from establihed groups of businesses and they definitely have the legislators ear.........at the moment

Ultimately though in a democracy the power lies with the numbers......and those numbers are growing inxcreasingly impatient with the actions of content companies....

Prediction: Within 10 years copyright law will be completely unrecognisable from what it is today.

Content companies can get in front of the consumer on that....

or be run over.

Posted by: Dave F_z   Posted on: 07/08/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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