Jeffrey McCall had a column in the Lafayette Journal & Courier that made me think of a passage from John Perry Barlow’s “Economy of Ideas.”
McCall was writing about what big money sports represent for media corporations:
Sports television is great for the mega media corporations. Live game broadcasts are virtually DVR-proof, meaning fans watch the games as they happen. Thus, viewers can’t skip the commercials, as they often do when they view recorded sitcoms or dramas.
That phenomenon was anticipated by Barlow who was reflecting on the changing nature of copyright in a digital age. Barlow had observed back in the mid-90s that copyright really regulated the bottles instead of the wine. Now that the nature of the container was changing – becoming digitized and not analog – it would pose a problem.
I believe one idea is central to understanding liquid commerce: Information economics, in the absence of objects, will be based more on relationship than possession.
One existing model for the future conveyance of intellectual property is real-time performance, a medium currently used only in theater, music, lectures, stand-up comedy, and pedagogy. I believe the concept of performance will expand to include most of the information economy, from multicasted soap operas to stock analysis. In these instances, commercial exchange will be more like ticket sales to a continuous show than the purchase of discrete bundles of that which is being shown.
The other existing, model, of course, is service. The entire professional class – doctors, lawyers, consultants, architects, and so on – are already being paid directly for their intellectual property. Who needs copyright when you’re on a retainer?
In fact, until the late 18th century this model was applied to much of what is now copyrighted. Before the industrialization of creation, writers, composers, artists, and the like produced their products in the private service of patrons. Without objects to distribute in a mass market, creative people will return to a condition somewhat like this, except that they will serve many patrons, rather than one.
The live sports event fits the real-time performance model. It commands attention in a predictable fashion. People will often wait through the ads to see the event in real time. That’s why it commands a premium from cable subscribers.
Typically, you can DVR a live football game and wait to start it about 45 minutes late and still end at the same time as the live broadcast. College basketball can be done the same way with a 30 minute delay.
Not a huge time shift, but it does alleviate the issue of watching commercials.