We've become so used to treating digital content like physical goods that we've forgotten how different the two really are and how unsustainable that business model really is. In this talk, EPAM Empathy Lab content strategist and Developing Philly co-creator David Dylan Thomas suggests new directions for content consumption and compensation that respect the fundamental nature of content today. Questions Answered: - Why can't we just treat digital content like physical content? - What are some new options for compensating content creators? - What does it mean to live in a post-ownership economy?

1. CaaS
@movie_pundit
Content as a Service: Artificial
Scarcity and the Post-Ownership
Economy
David Dylan Thomas

3. Capitol Records Complaint
“ReDigi makes and assists its users in making
systematic, repeated and unauthorized
reproductions and distributions of Plaintiffs
copyrighted sound recordings.”
David Dylan Thomas @movie_pundit

4. “Digital Files Are Not Material Objects
Subject to the Distribution Right”
“The statute is quite plain. It is clear that digital
music files, which are not material objects, are
therefore neither copies nor phonorecords,
hence not subject to the distribution right. If they
were to be considered material objects, copies,
or phonorecords within the meaning of 17 U.S.C.
106(3), they would also have to be considered
material objects, copies, or phonorecords within
the meaning of 17 U.S.C. 109(a), hence exempt
anyway – in ReDigi’s case – under the First Sale
Doctrine (discussed infra).”
David Dylan Thomas @movie_pundit

5. Is This True?
David Dylan Thomas @movie_pundit

6. No Dice, Grandma
“It is beside the point that the original
phonorecord no longer exists. It matters only
that a new phonorecord has been created.”
David Dylan Thomas @movie_pundit

7. What the Hell Is a “Phonorecord”?
“…material objects in which sounds, other
than those accompanying a motion picture or
other audiovisual work, are fixed.”
-United States Copyright Act of 1976
(yup, 1976)
David Dylan Thomas @movie_pundit

8. No Dice, Grandma
“It is beside the point that the original
phonorecord no longer exists. It matters only
that a new phonorecord has been created.”
David Dylan Thomas @movie_pundit

9. Illegal Copy

10. How to Resell Your MP3’s
David Dylan Thomas @movie_pundit

11. How to Resell Your MP3’s
All you have to do is sell your “ 'particular'
phonorecord, be it a computer hard disk, iPod,
or other memory device onto which the file
was originally downloaded.”
David Dylan Thomas @movie_pundit

13. How we pay for a thing is tied to how
we think about that thing.

14. Desirable + Scarce = Expensive
Desirable + Common = Cheap

15. Desirable + Scarce = Expensive
Desirable + Common = Cheap
Desirable + Infinitely Replicable = ???

16. Artificial Scarcity

17. Artificial Scarcity
This. Breaks. Easily.

18. Record companies want you to
treat digital goods like physical
goods, until they don’t.

19. Publishing Is Next

20. Why Licensing Won’t Work
The Way We Think About Content ≠ How We Pay for It
(Judge punts on this…)

21. Why can’t you sell a used MP3?

22. Why can’t you sell a used MP3?
Because there is no such thing!

23. Even These Children Figured It Out

24. “Physical copies of works degrade with time and use, making used
copies less desirable than new ones. Digital information does not
degrade, and can be reproduced perfectly on a recipient’s
computer. The ‘used’ copy is just as desirable as (in fact, is
indistinguishable from) a new copy of the same work. Time, space,
effort and cost no longer act as barriers to the movement of
copies, since digital copies can be transmitted nearly
instantaneously anywhere in the world with minimal effort and
negligible cost. The need to transport physical copies of works,
which acts as a natural brake on the effect of resales on the
copyright owner’s market, no longer exists in the realm of digital
transmissions.”
- U.S. Copyright Office Report to Congress, 2001

25. Entropy is what keeps the physical
market afloat.

26. In digital content, the idea of an
“original” and a “copy” ceases to exist,
and we don’t have an economy for
that.

27. In digital content, the idea of an
“original” and a “copy” ceases to exist,
and we don’t have an economy for
that.
(But we do have a way to think about it….)

28. 3 Kinds of Sharing

29. 3 Kinds of Sharing

30. 3 Kinds of Sharing

31. 3 Kinds of Sharing

32. 3 Kinds of Sharing

33. 3 Kinds of Sharing

34. Content = Information
• It doesn’t just represent information
• It doesn’t just contain information
• It doesn’t just point to information
• It is itself information
David Dylan Thomas @movie_pundit

35. Is there a way to think about
monetizing content that aligns with
its fundamental nature?
David Dylan Thomas @movie_pundit

36. Content as a Service
This Is Not Scarce This Is

38. Goods Are Going Away

39. Goods Are Going Away

40. Someone in Power Actually Said This…
"We just don't think that ownership will be
around in the future."
- Richard Wellerstein, VP, Content
Acquisition, AT&T
David Dylan Thomas @movie_pundit

41. Access Over Ownership
David Dylan Thomas @movie_pundit

42. Consumption Today
• Things magically appear when I need them.
• They go away when I don’t.
David Dylan Thomas @movie_pundit

43. Producing Ownership Is Expensive
David Dylan Thomas @movie_pundit

44. No, really, goods are going away.

45. There is no ONE approach,
but here is AN approach…
David Dylan Thomas @movie_pundit
It is a future of agile solutions, not inflexible ones.

46. Content as a Service
This Is Not Scarce This Is

47. Crowdsourced Patronage

48. Crowdsourced Patronage

49. Crowdsourced Patronage

50. Crowdsourced Patronage

54. Spoken Reasons has 1,000,000
subscribers on YouTube.

55. Spoken Reasons has 1,000,000
subscribers on YouTube.
If only 5% of them agreed to give him $1 a
month, he would make $600,000 a year.

56. Spoken Reasons has 1,000,000
subscribers on YouTube.
If only 5% of them agreed to give him $1 a
month, he would make $600,000 a year.
He doesn’t need Hollywood…

57. Spoken Reasons has 1,000,000
subscribers on YouTube.
If only 5% of them agreed to give him $1 a
month, he would make $600,000 a year.
He doesn’t need Hollywood… …Hollywood needs him.

59. For the artist…
…crowdfunding is about not .

60. For the audience…
…crowdfunding is about not .

61. Artist Audience
Producer/Distributor
Final Cut
Gatekeeping
Pricing
Centralized Risk

62. Artist Audience
Platform
Final Cut Gatekeeping
Pricing
Distributed Risk

63. Not for everyone.

66. Creative Middle Class

67. Guess what costs $7 million?

68. Guess what costs $7 million?

69. The Hybrid Approach

70. The Hybrid Approach

71. The Hybrid Approach

72. Post-Ownership Economy
• Focus on artist, not art.
• Focus on audience, not distributor.
• Focus on passion, not product.
• Focus on access, not possession.
• Focus on relationship, not transaction.
David Dylan Thomas @movie_pundit

74. David Dylan Thomas
@movie_pundit
www.daviddylanthomas.com