Fascinating post by Paul Graham on the idea that consumers don’t, and have never paid for published content. Rather they pay for the format. It’s a notion that I think is bang on as an analysis of business models in the media industry and the impact of digital distribution.
What I found particularly interesting about Graham’s ideas was his distinction between broadcasting and publishing. The music, news and book industries are publishing copies of content. The movie and TV industry tend to be broadcasting content that can’t be copied.
As I have written about before, the question is how long will that situation last?
