DISQUS

Henry, Liebowitz raises some very good points though. For example, verified sales figures for CDs in Canada are not consistent with the self-reported figures in the Canadian study, and the authors don't seem to have been concerned about this.

Liebowitz also ran the regressions referred to in the Canadian paper and obtained different results. This raises questions as to WTF the authors were doing.

Tim, I was referring to the fact that people entering other highly trained occupations learn and are taught to value their expertise. Very few occupations would celebrate a business model that encourages them to donate their work for free, especially when the beneficiaries are big corporations.

Regarding the lack of entry barriers for programming, I'm not saying that's bad. I think it's good. But I am saying it's a factor in the relative naivity of programmers in many business situations.

I also refer to the confusion so prevalent in open source discussion, where the benefits to buyers are presented as also being benefits to programmers. They're not. Other occupations all know they have to fight to maintain their salary levels and business, because customers want them as cheaply as possible.

Programmers on the other hand have often been sucked in. And these days there are significant corporate efforts aimed at encouraging this model.

Also, the Institute for Policy Innovation is a think tank, not a PR firm. It doesn't tell me what to write or think.

Microsoft and Edelman have been sprung trying to do an end-run past the normal review process by bribing bloggers they judged to be gullible and pliant.

Most of the recipients still don't seem to realise what this says about how they're viewed by Edelman and Microsoft.