January 16, 2002
Larry and Napster
Napster, my favourite sonic recycling tool
PW: I like to think of this as the Napster recession. If you plot the stock markets before 2001 September 11th, you can see that the crucial court rulings are almost like hinge points where the market bends up or down. The stock prices go up after a favorable ruling for Napster and drop afterwards. It's probably a bit silly to ascribe all of the market's zeitgeist to one company, but the end of Napster is really the biggest roadblock for the personal computer. Until Napster crashed, everyone kept predicting more, bigger and better things for the humming space heaters under the desks. LL: This is an important and under discussed point. We have seen a dramatic crash in the market. Why? Most attribute it exclusively to "irrational expectations." But meanwhile there has been a very dramatic change in the legal environment within which the take-off occurred. This change must have had an effect. PW: We've also lost the rational exuberance. Now, we've got to ask mother-may-I before developing any neat software? Why bother? Can we blame Hollywood for this? LL: While it would be irresponsible to try to say with any precision how much is a function of the content industry lawyers, it is also irresponsible not to at least acknowledge that some part of this decline is due to the different way the law regulates the net. Laws protecting dinosaurs from the content industry are killing the opportunity for growth. Why? Only because the only thing worse than |
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(Peter Wayner and Lawrence Lessig) -- full interview [slashdot].
Posted by dc at January 16, 2002 02:54 PM