Dan Kohn’s other shoe has dropped. “Steal This Essay 2: Why Encryption Doesn’t Help” is a great follow-up to his “Steal This Essay 1: Content Is a Pure Public Good.”
When content providers start encrypting their content, the game is over. All it takes is one kid with a little spare time who is sufficiently motivated to crack or route around the encryption system. Bits is bits and by definition, can be copied infinitely with no loss of signal quality. Because digital information is a nonrival, nonexcludable good, there goes the business model and acceptable “shrinkage rates” that have served media conglomerates well for more than 100 years.
This is old news, and intelligent content creators have understood this basic reality for some time. What remains to be discovered, is a sustainable business model for digital information in this new reality. For that, I’m eagerly looking forward to Kohn’s next essay.
