Make your customers your partners

Dave writes an essay worrying about who will pay for software. This is a hard problem, and the bundling model whereby Microsoft or Apple include the software in the cost of the hardware does not scale well to all kinds of software, attractive as it is when it works for you.

My answer to this is the same as my answer to the media issue. The way to win is to make your customers your partners. Give them an incentive to generate sales for you, and they dynamic changes. mediAgora's Promoter model would work very well for shareware, and the derivative works model could work well for software libraries, with applications that incorporate the libraries being rewarded for incremental sales.

Gibson on media

William Gibson's speech to the Directors Guild of America should be read in full, so I won't excerpt it here.

He expresses the same sense of awe that I did in 'I can read people's thoughts', but extends it to film and music too.

He also eloquently points to the need for a new model for media once it becomes malleable by any viewer, which is what I have proposed over at mediAgora .

Music I remember

Excellent program on 80s Electronic music hosted by Phil Oakey on Radio One. Shame it's only up in low bitrate Real8

Why isn't all this on the iTunes Store? I'd buy it.

Wait 50 years, then pay

Larry Lessig is trying to pass a law that will require copyright registration, as $1/year after the 50th year:

The idea is a simple one: Fifty years after a work has been published, the copyright owner must pay a $1 comment maintanence fee. If the copyright owner pays the fee, then the copyright continues. If the owner fails to pay the fee, the work passes into the public domain. Based on historical precedent, we expect 98% of copyrighted works would pass into the public domain after just 50 years. They could keep Mickey for as long as Congress lets them. But we would get a public domain.

A step in the right direction. Even better if the fee doubles every year thereafter, but that can come as an amendment later.

DRM as crime

David Weinberger explains clearly why using computers to enforce laws is foolish and dangerous.
In reality, our legal system usually leaves us wiggle room. What's fair in one case won't be in another - and only human judgment can discern the difference. As we write the rules of use into software and hardware, we are also rewriting the rules we live by as a society, without anyone first bothering to ask if that's OK.

Potemkin DRM

The iTunes Music store has the same approach to DRM as the original iTunes did.
Don't annoy customers too much. Make it very easy to do the desired, legitimate thing, and awkward to do the undesired thing, but don't waste too much effort trying to make it impossible, as leeway is important.

Creative code

Paul Graham writes a very perceptive essay on coding.

Rebuilding Iraq

There are a couple of people who should be persuaded to help rebuild Iraq. The first is Hernando de Soto, who should be put in charge of creating a land registry.
The second is Mohammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank. He should be give the task fo setting up the Iraqi Oil trust.

Maf Awakes

Nearly a year ago, I told Maf he should start a blog, and made one for him, which he resolutely ignored. Now he's started posting to it, and it's helpful stuff too, about Curry and how to make DVD players useful.

So go and read Maf's blog