[mlmpetert]

Originally Posted by FRPLG

If everything is free then no one will make anything, innovate anything, do anything.

I didnt read all the stuff Dirtbag linked but im guessing the thought that if one day we can download physical objects is not that everything will be free, but that the cost of downloading something will be based only off of the material cost ie “printing” cost. So the difference in cost between, say, a Sony TV and a Coby TV would only be the difference in material costs. The intellectual property costs would be zero, and i completely agree with you in that that incentive to innovate would also be zero.

So whats really interesting about what you said is that it’s already very true for the industries affected by current downloadable content, ie digital media. A few months ago I read the Generation Y’s (born 1980’s-2000) wiki.

The 2000s produced no new, epoch-defining, music genres, unlike past decades (Rock and soul in the 1960s for baby boomers, grunge, techno/rave and hip hop in the 1990s for Generation X).[81][82] Instead genres such as hip hop and r&b built incrementally on where they were in the '90s. Autotune has been cited as the decade's sole musical innovation. Many have cited the spread of information technology, from YouTube to iTunes, to file sharing blogs, as having increased the presence of the past in individuals lives because of the range of content that can be accessed. As a result, Generation Y has revived styles of past decades without actually creating anything new[citation needed].

Now indie rock of the early 2000s has been attributed to Generation Y, though the genre has been described as "spent", and criticized for its lack of angst.[83][84][85]

So basically my generation hasn’t really produced any new music genres, but we are given credit for reviving past generation’s genres. Which is absolutely true; how many times have you heard someone say I only listen to “x style of music”? If you ask someone what kind of music they like the reply is normally “everything” or “everything but”.

I look at digital music I think the way many others on this thread have alluded to. If I download something its to test it out or decide if I like the band enough to buy their album. Having all sorts of genres, styles and renditions of music accessible has only allowed me to experience those different types of music. If the music wasn’t accessible for little effort and for free, I like many others would likely have never heard certain genres or purchased them through other means. However, as Wikipedia points out this may have been at the cost of Generation Y not having enough incentive to create anything new themselves with exception for the autotune…..

This seems to bleed into movies and tv shows too:

55 movie remakes currently in the works - Den of Geek

^ Those are just things that were in the works for 2008 (ps im looking forward to the They Live remake!). Digital media has allowed artists and creators to be inspired by all, and viewers to have cultural reference to everything. Maybe that’s the perfect mix for people to be resistant to original ideas?

Fueled by a class of hipsters, I would think that this is also the first generation that has caused the cost of many “vintage” or “retro” items and technology to cost more than many new comperable products:

Sony Walkman Pro wm-d6c cassette-corder VERY NICE CONDITION | eBay

Sony NWZ-S544 8GB MP3 Player - Black NEW (27242778849) | eBay