These days there is a continuous discussion around Intellectual Property Right (IPR) and the financial value of content. Well, to start with the reality of today, IPR has had it's time . Content lost it's power to generate money by itself. There is only one way to get revenue from it and that by adding value, a service. Think of the willingness to pay 150 Euros for a Rolling Stones concert. Being there live is obviously of endless value. Much more than having a CD. Or another example, the possession and ownership of a signed photograph or original painting has much more (e.g. emotional) value then having a reproduction or copy on a (hard)disk.
Very good software appears in the open source domain, musicians publish their music directly on the net for free download, modern writers have their blogs, wiki's are the replacement of proprietary knowledge bases and so on. Think about this: the content of some magazines is actually almost free. The costs to create the magazine exceeds the price u r paying for it by far. But, it's not a market of ppl buying magazines, it's a market of companies buying advertisement space and access to potential buyers of their products. That's the real money flow.
Some record and software companies try to protect their revenue streams with ideas like increasing the subscription for an internet account or the price of an iPod or computer to cover the IPR. Complete nonsens of course. They will lose. The market itself will show the way ppl want to pay for something. Like the Rolling Stones concert, or iTunes, or may be the service to have content on a disk just coz ppl don't have the time or knowledge to download, burn, print stickers, organize, etc. etc. Software and music companies like to create the image of the loss of billions and billions on revenue due to these "criminal" copycats. Nonsens too of course! Time has changed and demand and supply of content has become a lot more divers. Competition is fierce and the monopoly is gone . Nobody wants to pay for something where enough alternatives are available for.
So where should the musicians, software engineers, painters. writers go from here? Well, plz don't let them stop creating content to start with but let's be aware of the new competition and channels. The "package" of the content obviously has to be diff compared to the the ones in the past. Ppl still want to pay for additional services. The old "teams" of musicians & record co's, or writers & publishers, or software engineers & IT-firms have to change or at least have to change their views on the quickly changing business models. The challenge is of course creating a new unique product again or something somebody wants to really experience even if it's a "once-in-a-lifetime". In fact this often means getting revenue from another direction. May be by having free downloads of music, software, pictures, stories and getting the money from advertisement or another payed service. Not that this is all easy but remember, the "old style monopoly" has gone .
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These days there is a continuous discussion around Intellectual Property Right (IPR) and the financial value of content. Well, to start with the reality of today, IPR has had it's time 
. Content lost it's power to generate money by itself. There is only one way to get revenue from it and that by adding value, a service. Think of the willingness to pay 150 Euros for a Rolling Stones concert. Being there live is obviously of endless value. Much more than having a CD. Or another example, the possession and ownership of a signed photograph or original painting has much more (e.g. emotional) value then having a reproduction or copy on a (hard)disk.
Some record and software companies try to protect their revenue streams with ideas like increasing the subscription for an internet account or the price of an iPod or computer to cover the IPR. Complete nonsens of course. They will lose. The market itself will show the way ppl want to pay for something. Like the Rolling Stones concert, or iTunes, or may be the service to have content on a disk just coz ppl don't have the time or knowledge to download, burn, print stickers, organize, etc. etc. Software and music companies like to create the image of the loss of billions and billions on revenue due to these "criminal" copycats. Nonsens too of course! Time has changed and demand and supply of content has become a lot more divers. Competition is fierce and the monopoly is gone 
. Nobody wants to pay for something where enough alternatives are available for. 
So where should the musicians, software engineers, painters. writers go from here? Well, plz don't let them stop creating content to start with but let's be aware of the new competition and channels. The "package" of the content obviously has to be diff compared to the the ones in the past. Ppl still want to pay for additional services. The old "teams" of musicians & record co's, or writers & publishers, or software engineers & IT-firms have to change or at least have to change their views on the quickly changing business models. The challenge is of course creating a new unique product again or something somebody wants to really experience even if it's a "once-in-a-lifetime". In fact this often means getting revenue from another direction. May be by having free downloads of music, software, pictures, stories and getting the money from advertisement or another payed service. Not that this is all easy but remember, the "old style monopoly" has gone 
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