Addendum
Opponents of open access academic publishing may say that this parable is hyperbole. It is, but only in one respect. When people do not have access to food they die quickly. When they don’t have access to science they die more slowly.
Note this parable works for any incumbent pre-Internet exclusive distribution network or content.
It isn’t about piracy – It’s about the Music Industry losing the ability to re-sell you the same music over, and over, and over. It’s about the Music Industry’s ever expanding back catalog no longer translating to automatic ever-expanding re-sales. The Music Industry spent a hell of a lot of money to make copyright effectively never-ending, explicitly to protect that re-selling revenue stream…and now the carpet has been yanked out from under them.
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That huge drop in sales? That’s called market saturation. Most everyone that wanted a Beatles or Stones recording already owns it…on a format they will effectively never replace again.
It’s about the Music Industry thinking, wrongly, that they were in the business of selling toothpaste. Then waking up one day to realize they really are selling cast iron frying pans. You’ll always need to buy more toothpaste…but you’ll never need to buy another cast iron frying pan.
Hamish MacEwan 