[Leica] Re: What me worry?

[Robert Appleby <robert.appleby@tin.it>]

Guy, 
I think Ted and others have already said it, but here goes - if Brian lets
it get through. By the way, on the topic of "off topic", this is a great
group to be in if you're not very interested in cameras! My wife is on the
nikon group and it's all flash mode Q+A there (shudder).

Presumably anyone on the LUG is in the top-ish percentage of the world's
population, income wise. That means we're pretty insulated against life's
little ups and downs. But for the vast majority in the bottom, let's say,
50%, the disproportionate power and concentration of wealth and resources
in the hands of a tiny, _tiny_ minority is a reality they have to live with
every day. That doesn't mean that they worry about it everyday, or that
they're even _aware_ of it, but the economic terms within which they live
their lives are set by these people (as a class). I mean employment,
infrastructure, healthcare, etc.

As for the better off, like us, all signs are that guaranteed prosperity
and middle class-dom are becoming things of the past. The individual
"content provider" of whatever sort has diminishing control over the
outcome of his labour and welfare provision is on its way out. It looks
like nineteenth century capitalism is on its way back in with a vengeance,
and Gates is one of the leaders of this trend, just as Rockefeller was in
the 19th C. (You could even say that computers today are what crude oil was
then.) The basic model is work-for-hire, i.e. I hire you to make it and
then it's mine and I get all the economic benefit from it. 

That may not seem bad, because after all, that's how most people work
anyway. But most people work on collaborative production where the issue of
individual rights doesn't seem to apply, or at least cannot be administered
directly. It could be argued that a automobile plant labourer's copyright
dues are being paid to him in the form of his salary. What is getting
people worked up is the extension of this model to areas where the product
is most definitely the work of a single individual, and hence copyright is
a transparent concept. In that circumstance, WFH is not a suitable model. 

Anyway, enough.

Rob.
Robert Appleby
V. Bellentani 36
41100 MO
Italy
tel. (+39) 059 303436
mob. (+39) 0348 336 7990