FairPlay: Case study on why content providers hate DRM too

FairPlay: Case study on why content providers hate DRM too

They are more like maths. assuming the assumptions hold, they predict the end-result.

Frequently the assumptions do NOT hold, but free market evangelists pretend that the "invisible hand" of the market will still somehow, magically, work.

A free market, in the original sense, assumes that there is a large number of suppliers of equivalent product. For copyrigthed works that's obviously bunk, there's precisely *one* supplier for most works.

It assumes that there is a large number of buyers. All having complete knowledge of the market. That the buyers are capable (and interested) in objectively comparing the offerings made by the many sellers and choosing the one giving the best price/performance for them. This is *also* frequently bunk.

There *are* markets where this is close to true. Petrol, for example. There are several gas-stations. There are many buyers. Buyers are generally atleast reasonably aware of the current pricing. Buyers *will* fairly consequently prefer the cheaper alternative. Try selling petrol at a price 10% over or 10% under the market-price in the are. At 10% over, you'll sell miniscule amounts. At 10% under you'll sell enormous amounts.

That ain't even close to how the market works for most things though. Frequently there is a monopoly or oligopoly, uninformed buyers, high barriers to entry, artificial barriers to trade, (region-coding anyone?), network-effects (ie you buy X because then you'll be able to interoperate with your friends having X, even if Y offers a better price for an equivalent product) and so on.

Markets do work fairly well -- when the assumptions hold. But most of the time, they don't. Certainly with any kind of goods with a state-given monopoly it's almost ridicolous to talk about a "free market" at all.