Against Monopoly

defending the right to innovate

Monopoly corrupts. Absolute monopoly corrupts absolutely.

How Digital "Piracy" Creates Value

EBay just sold a large portion of Skype after a long legal dispute with Skype's founders. What interested me was the Skype's code evolved from the founders' earlier venture, the file-sharing system, Kazaa. In effect, the experience with the "illegal" Kazaa allowed the founders to develop technology that had a great value, especially for people communicating internationally.

The founders, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, blocked the sale for a long time on the grounds that EBay violated an agreement not to tamper with the code without their approval. In effect, Ebay acted like a pirate, while the pirates became anti-pirates.

Perhaps someday someone will catalog all the other benefits that that the pirates developed.

I don't know how to break off the post to keep from taking up the entire screen,so here is some background information:

http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/how-digital-piracy-creates-value/

[Posted at 11/19/2009 07:19 PM by Michael Perelman on Piracy comments(0)]

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