Ok. I’ve had a response from Cory Doctorow about what I wrote earlier today and in the spirit of adequate redress (so it doesn’t look like I’m controlling the media where we’re debating), I’m just going to post it in its entirety so that people can read it and then direct everyone over to Matt’s site where you can see my reply (and any subsequent comments that Cory’s interested in making) in context and on a level playing-field…
Unfortunately, I can’t reply to you on your blog, Tom, so here’s my response: Whether we’re talking about money or effort or difficulty is irrelevant. A computational tax (hash-cache) or an effort tax both translate into an advantage for those who can lay hands on additional resources (i.e., the rich) at the expense of those who can’t. There is no scarcity here. This is an amazing and unprecedented occassion in human history: plenty. A commons that is nonzerosum. We need new tools for managing such a commons, but tariffs that create scarcity where none exists are like “fixing” the problem of high-speed travel by putting horseshoes on railroad engines.