Day: December 17, 2011

Some Thoughts On The Louis CK “Experiment”

Some Thoughts On The Louis CK “Experiment”:

But this can also work for emerging artists. They won’t make as much money as Louis CK, but they also don’t need to make as large of an investment either. And over time, if their work is good, their audience will grow and the investments they can make and the profits they can make will increase.

[This piece was going OK until he got to the paragraph above. I know he said “emerging” artist, which implies some following already in place. But the truth is that kick starting something like this is really, really, low odds. Like Lotto low. And I’m not saying that everyone has to do a six camera shoot of their gigs. I bet you could get a great shoot done with six IPhones for goodness sake. But that’s not my point. There is definite chicken and egg problem here, where not enough people know who you are and what you are doing to make virtually any production pay for itself, let alone make you money (never mind “real” money). The lesson I’d take away from what he did was how much of the work he did himself. Something that the super powerful computers sitting on many of our desks make possible. Look at what people are accomplishing by mastering their craft, and then how relatively little technology it takes to get an amazing recording on the ‘Nets for all to enjoy. And think about it. He could have walked away with nothing (or less than nothing) for his efforts too.]
Source: A VC

Fight SOPA.

If you hate Big Government, fight SOPA.:

Nobody who opposes Big Government and favors degregulation should favor the Stop Online Piracy Act, better known as SOPA, or H.R. 3261. It’s a big new can of worms that will cripple use of the Net, slow innovation on it, clog the courts with lawsuits, employ litigators in perpetuity and deliver copyright maximalists in the “content” business a hollow victory for the ages.

A few years back, a former government official confidentially issued a warning to a small group I was part of, which favored some kind of lawmaking around technology. While this isn’t a verbatim quote, it’s pretty close, because it has been burned in my mind ever since: “In the course of my work I have met with nearly every member of Congress. And I can tell you that, with only a handful of exceptions, there are two things none of them understand. One is economics and the other is technology. Now proceed.”

Know-nothing lawmakers are doing exactly that with SOPA. As Joshua Kopstein says, Dear Congress, It’s No Longer OK To Not Know How The Internet Works.

SOPA is a test for principle for members of Congress. If you wish to save the Internet, vote against it. If you wish to fight Big Government, vote against it. If you wish to protect friends in the “content” production and distribution business at extreme cost to every other business in the world, vote for it. If you care more about a few businesses you can name and nothing about all the rest of them — which will be whiplashed by the unintended consequences of a bill that limits what can be done on the Internet while not comprehending the Internet at all, vote for it.

[Go read the rest of Doc’s piece. And then get off your hands and get in touch with your congress people.]
Source: Doc Searls Weblog