The story about the NY Times closing down shop on its 2 year experiment in selling access to content has been reported all over the blogosphere, from many different angles. It is a rich story, really, and does in fact have much to say about what's happening in the business world of the Internet. The if:book report reflects the change from a publisher's having confidence in the power of its own brand to draw in paying subscribers to its having confidence in the power of Internet search and advertising to draw in far more dollars in the long run: if:book: all the news that's fit to search.
I agree that the power of search makes dollars and sense. But I also note that this particular strategy places copyright's *exclusion" right, it's reliance on exclusive rights to motivate creation, a little further down in the hierarchy of what one needs to succeed in the online world. Or, put another way, if you play the copyright card front and center, you ignore a lot of other cards that are ultimately of more economic value.
We are finally beginning to get the idea that control over copies isn't the only way to exercise one's copyrights. Sharing actually works, economically. It also makes a lot of sense that advertising would be the liberator. It's under our noses all the time with television. But surely it's not the only alternative to controlling access and counting copies. The world of all advertising, all the time has its own downsides. Nonetheless, it's encouraging to see major publishers leaving access control behind.
