Search LBO-Talk Archives

931 [lbo-talk] Dumb QOTD: What kind of labor producesintellectualproperty? -- rank: 1000

On Sep 7, 2011, at 7:03 PM, SA wrote: > I don't get this. Doug earns an income stream from LBO by sending people PDFs in exchange for $x. If he didn't have copyright then some dufus somewhere could just put the PDF on a free website and presumably far fewer people would subscribe to LBO. Right? Or am I wrong about this? I would, of course, track down the pirates and torture them horribly before eviscerating them. Doug

Document Size:	5289
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Sep 7 18:30:20 PDT 2011

932 [lbo-talk] Dumb QOTD: What kind of labor produces intellectual property? -- rank: 1000

On Sep 7, 2011, at 1:41 PM, Gar Lipow wrote: > Again just to emphasize a distinction that does not get made enough. I > would agree that intellectual property rights as a system does more > harm than good, but it is important to understand that while we live > under this system, that is often the only way for an intellectual > worker to get compensated. Similarly, I hope that people who believe > the wage labor system does more harm than good do not expect most > people to q ...

Document Size:	5582
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Sep 7 10:50:45 PDT 2011

933 [lbo-talk] WEALTH TRANSFER -- rank: 1000

On Sep 6, 2011, at 9:48 AM, Jim Hicks wrote: > It is clear that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer but what isn't > clear is the mechanism of that fact. > I seems to me though, that the rich get richer *because *the poor (or middle > class) get poorer. Wages for the bottom 75-80% of the pop have been suppressed through union-busting, downsizings, outsourcing, and fear. Meanwhile, people at the top have been using their power to pay themselves very well. Wall Street has succ ...

Document Size:	5293
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Sep 6 07:41:35 PDT 2011

934 [lbo-talk] Wall Street book -- rank: 1000

On Sep 5, 2011, at 6:43 PM, Charles Turner wrote: > Sorry to keep asking this: what happened to the Complete LBO DVD offer? I need to update it. That's all. Too many things to do, not enough time. Doug

Document Size:	4652
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Sep 5 18:26:16 PDT 2011

935 [lbo-talk] Wall Street book -- rank: 1000

On Sep 5, 2011, at 4:53 PM, 123hop at comcast.net wrote: > Who has the copyright now? > > If you... you could update it and provide a downloadable version for $10. It would take a couple of years to update it. I wouldn't do it on spec. I'd want decent coin - like $20,000 - to do it. I own the copyright now. Verso let it go out of print so the rights reverted to me. Doug

Document Size:	4924
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Sep 5 18:25:28 PDT 2011

936 [lbo-talk] Dumb QOTD: What kind of labor produces intellectual property? -- rank: 1000

On Sep 5, 2011, at 4:38 PM, Michael Pollak wrote: > On Sun, 4 Sep 2011, Doug Henwood wrote: > >>> $6000 for the book Wall Street >> >> It was a great deal for Verso, which made something like $300,000 from the book. > > So you made 2% of the take? > > I honestly have to wonder whether you would do any worse on an aggresive cyber tip jar basis. That is, if you wrote a book, told people they could download it for free but if they liked it, the suggested dona ...

Document Size:	5615
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Sep 5 13:52:19 PDT 2011

937 [lbo-talk] Dumb QOTD: What kind of labor produces intellectual property? -- rank: 1000

On Sep 4, 2011, at 7:36 PM, Dennis Redmond wrote: > In fairness to Verso, the structural problem is that sales of books, > like all other purchased cultural material, are highly unpredictable. > As a rule, one out of ten books, films, movies, TV shows, and > videogames will hit the jackpot, and the rest either barely break even > or lose money. So the few winners end up subsidizing the rest. Why would you want to be fair to Verso? They're notorious for not paying authors. A reliab ...

Document Size:	6675
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Sep 5 07:14:13 PDT 2011

938 [lbo-talk] Dumb QOTD: What kind of labor produces intellectual property? -- rank: 1000

On Sep 3, 2011, at 10:42 PM, Tayssir John Gabbour wrote: > (It's not like the present copyright regime really is all that great > for producers. $6000 for the book Wall Street? Book authors often just > expect to somehow leverage money indirectly from the exposure their > books give them, like consulting jobs It was a great deal for Verso, which made something like $300,000 from the book. Doug

Document Size:	5332
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Sep 4 07:26:23 PDT 2011

939 [lbo-talk] Dumb QOTD: What kind of labor produces intellectual property? -- rank: 1000

On Sep 2, 2011, at 9:06 PM, michael perelman wrote: > I would like a society in which all kinds of creators received public > support rather than rely on markets. Well I would too. But we don't right now. Doug

Document Size:	5117
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Sep 3 08:53:29 PDT 2011

940 [lbo-talk] Dumb QOTD: What kind of labor produces intellectual property? -- rank: 1000

On Sep 2, 2011, at 8:20 PM, michael perelman wrote: > Exactly. In my book Steal this Idea, I emphasize how intellectual > property hinders both science & technical change. Much of he cost > goes to litigation rather than rewarding creativity. You've got a job at a public university. Doug

Document Size:	5216
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Sep 2 17:38:34 PDT 2011

941 [lbo-talk] Dumb QOTD: What kind of labor produces intellectual property? -- rank: 1000

On Sep 2, 2011, at 8:12 PM, 123hop at comcast.net wrote: > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "SA" <s11131978 at gmail.com> > > > Copyright on music or prose creates above-normal profit just as much as > a patent on a machine does. In both cases profit is higher because the > inventor/writer is given a monopoly on production. > > That's no reason to oppose either, incidentally. > > --------- > > Really? I oppose both. For the same reason t ...

Document Size:	5817
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Sep 2 17:38:09 PDT 2011

942 [lbo-talk] new radio product -- rank: 1000

BEHIND THE NEWS with Doug Henwood "Best Music on an Economics & Politics Radio Show" Village Voice Best of NYC 2005 Freshly posted to my radio archive: September 3, 2011 David Cay Johnston on how corps and the megarich get away with paying almost no taxes (his Reuters column on GE is here) Adolph Reed on the Dems, the inflated threat of the Tea Party, and the diminishing usefulness of race as a political category it joins: --------- August 27, 2011 Mark Brenner, director of Labor ...

Document Size:	7890
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Sep 2 15:20:18 PDT 2011

943 [lbo-talk] Dumb QOTD: What kind of labor produces intellectual property? -- rank: 1000

On Sep 2, 2011, at 4:16 PM, SA wrote: > it creates "above-normal" profit for you Yeah, that $6,000 that Verso paid me for Wall Street - superfuckingprofits!

Document Size:	5054
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Sep 2 14:28:00 PDT 2011

944 [lbo-talk] Dumb QOTD: What kind of labor produces intellectual property? -- rank: 1000

On Sep 2, 2011, at 3:51 PM, SA wrote: > Copyright on music or prose creates above-normal profit just as much as a patent on a machine does. In both cases profit is higher because the inventor/writer is given a monopoly on production. Monopoly compared to what? No one else has written my book. That's rather different from a patent on the 4th iteration on Valium, or whatever they're up to now. Doug

Document Size:	5298
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Sep 2 13:10:35 PDT 2011

945 [lbo-talk] Dumb QOTD: What kind of labor produces intellectual property? -- rank: 1000

On Sep 2, 2011, at 8:28 AM, Charles Turner wrote: > Could someone point me to an answer to this? > > Reading Z's _End Times_, and in his chapter about political economy, he mentions the three classical divisions of income: labor, capital, land ownership. > > So what is a royalty? Is it a rent? Is an intellectual property a kind of capital? What kind of labor produces intellectual property? Royalty on what? If it's for a musical composition or work of prose collected by the writer ...

Document Size:	5634
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Sep 2 12:44:25 PDT 2011