the giant pool of money
the absolutely brilliant this american life, produced by Chicago Public Radio, ran a podcast, back in sept, on how the U.S. got itself into a housing crisis which eventually lead to the global economic downturn.
other than amazing coverage, they sure know how to produce podcasts. it’s over an hour but i couldnt stop listening.
3 things the government doesn’t get about piracy
1. piracy isn’t stealing. there is an economy around it. people do pay for pirated goods. the take away? there is a price point consumers are willing to settle for. there is money to be made. obviously VERY good money, going by the never declining number of pirates.
2. pirates are early innovators in the retail space. they understand how and what consumers want to buy. and they understand how to get it to them. setting up kiosks at the pasar malam with laptops and sideloading ringtones to kids in attractive bundles is something the music industry could have thought of first, if only they understood their own consumers. but that’s asking too much…
3. piracy fuels the economy. how many young malaysians graduate every year thanks to affordable software?
i buy the software i use. original. i can afford it. my business makes money. i support innovation in the software industry to enable me to keep doing what i do. for everything else there are open source alternatives. i am not condoning piracy.
i am questioning the governments understanding on piracy, and why it even exists.
i find some of the most interesting music in my collection from bargain bins at old bookstores in distant cities. i still dont own a record player, but that doesnt stop me from diggin’. This is Earth Quake from the 70’s with Friday On My Mind.
in the future, we ought to have more ‘commercial’ works available under CC licences.
in the future, people will come to understand that IP really means Intellectual Pursuit, not Intellectual Property.
btw, i recently read Matt Mason’s The Pirate’s Dilemma. I bought the book after downloading it for free from the official website. and, watch this video. I really like the part about the term ‘yankee’ ;)
globalisation is a one way street named ‘america’
free trade doesn’t exist. the only thing ‘free’ is america’s ability to impose its ‘values’ freely on emerging (or ‘should-have-already-emerged-by-now’) markets.
the only thing ‘global’ is the monotony of our increasingly homogeneous society. we travel halfway around the world to find ourselves standing on the same street corners. consuming the same ultra-efficient pre-cooked food.
the economic crisis is a good thing. Arabs, Chinese and Indians are buying stakes in American powerhouses. Where they previously resisted, america is now desperate to sell. Asia is more than happy to buy. Hollywood, Wall St., Main St;..the net outcome? a more balanced cultural outlook to re-export to the rest of the world. we hope…
sex sells, but we’re not dealing
im particularly proud of this latest ep on ‘the fairly current show’. there is a soul behind every face. im really glad mark and fahmi invited her on the show. this is a simple example of how technology can create value for society. firstly, the mainstream press would ignore such topics, and even if they did feature someone like nisha, she’d be painted as a social menace.
this episode pretty much sums up what i hoped PopTeeVee to be….an information carrier. not boobs, babes and blings for advertising sake.
im often asked: “what is PopTeeVee’s business model?”
my answer: “value”
im quite particular about editing, and for various reasons settled on a zero-editing policy at PopTeeVee. most people think it’s a trivial issue, and im sure so did they!
via boingboing
