Abundance breaks more things than scarcity does. Society knows how to react to scarcity.
[Critics] claim that content creators and the like shouldn't even try to shift over to the new models while the old models still have some life in them or while the new models aren't really well proven. There's this belief that they can hang onto the old, and gradually add some elements of the new, and then eventually make the jump. But, what Shirky points out more eloquently than I ever could, is that much of the new stuff is really incompatible and very much in conflict with the old. If giving away your content increases new opportunities, how do you square that with an old business model that was built entirely around the scarcity of content?
No one doubts that this is difficult, and at times requires a big leap of faith. But there's no question that there are many things today that are abundant, where they used to be scarce. And that presents a huge challenge. Yet, time and time again, we've seen that when something becomes abundant it is not a bad thing -- but an opportunity to do something even larger. It's just that it's incredibly difficult to do that if you're still hanging on to the old ways.
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Clay Shirky makes some good points on key issues concerning content "creators" using an analog/20th Century business model: their last best hope is to expand copyright to the point of making as many things illegal as possible, criminalizing common behaviors. There's too much content, too much freedom online, and too many people creating content for them to make money in their old analog economic models.
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