Okay, pardon me for a second while I dive into an thoroughly impossible hypothetical situation....
Let's say for a moment that ideas truly do want to be free. And, of course, they do. Once information is divorced from hardware-- books are no longer on paper, paintings are no longer on canvas, music is no longer on vinyl-- then there is no sense in charging a unit cost.
Artists deserve to be compensated for their work. The only alternative to selling individual copies of the art is to sell the art itself, once, to the world.
Essentially, infocommunism.
Artists would create one final version of their product. They would submit it to a government database of some sort, and people could download it, share it, and modify it to their hearts' content. Based on the popularity of the work (and, according to certain NEA-like government programs, based on its subjective artistic merit), the government would pay a certain sum to the artist.
This would, of course, mean massive art taxes-- but you'd never have to pay for entertainment again. Things like physical paintings, hardcover books, and live concerts would still have a unit price, because they are physical objects.
Of course, such a scheme would require a massive one world government, and they would have the final say on the quantified worth of any piece of art. Somewhat of a nightmare scenario, politically.
|