Digital BW, The Print

Hi David:

 

I hope all is well on your end!

 

Allow me to extend the discussion concerning free information and the
internet.

 

Your position is well argued but perhaps not completely nuanced. If those
with useful information cannot recover the costs of dispensing such advice
then their contributions will by necessity cease.  There will be a loss of
information that might otherwise have been valuable and important.

 

Another approach would be to allow "the marketplace" to decide which
information is worth paying for, and which information is not.

 

I think we might agree that valuable information is indeed "worth" paying
for. However, how does one actually assign a value to information?  I would
argue that the marketplace is the gateway that allows free choice.

 

As a corollary: You and others who allow free access to valuable and
in-depth information are to be admired and sincerely thanked. However, as
you state: "Web sites that need income to keep them alive is true and
perfectly acceptable". 

 

Furthermore, in my view those individuals ( via individual web sites ) who
find the need to affix a cost to pay for their time and for computers,
software, printing paper, inks, etc., used to research issues that will be
discussed and clarified via the internet should be able to recover such
fixed costs. Once again:  The "market" will decide which individuals and
services offering advice and information are worth supporting. 

 

Elliot

 

 

From: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com] 
Sent: Monday, December 14, 2015 9:33 AM
To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Digital BW] Re: OT - Luminous Landscape

 

  

Homer, 

 

The logical conclusion of your point of view is that every web site will
charge a monthly fee (you said both monthly and yearly; which one is it?).

Think of all the web sites you visit for photographic information. Do you
really want to be cut off from all that if you can't pay every last one of
them?!

And how often do you use each web site? You will probably never get close to
receiving a $12 value from most.

Look at your bookmarks! What if every single one of them has to be paid
every month or year, or your library card is revoked? Is that really what
you want? The internet IS the new library.

The whole idea of the internet is freely available information. You're
talking about making the internet useless and unavailable, to all but the
well off.

It is especially troublesome that a photographer would be supporting this
wrong idea. Photography is where it is today BECAUSE of the free exchange of
information among photographers, or do you forget that Kodak and Ilford,
while producing great products, also slammed the door on individual
innovation for over a hundred years? Alternative methods are currently
thriving AND progressing, because of the free exchange of information ON THE
INTERNET! 

Hasn't the existing in-your-face, forced, aggressive advertising already
soured the experience enough? Do you really want a coin slot installed in
your computer?

That web sites need income to keep them alive is true and perfectly
acceptable. Fees to get access, or forced takeover of a page by advertisers
are not.

 

 

David Kachel

 

___________________

 

Artist-Photographer

Fine B&W Photographs

 

WEBSITE: www.davidkachel.com

BLOG: thetransparentphotographer.com

EMAIL: david@...

 

PO Box 1093

Bisbee, AZ 85603

(520) 366-4181

 

 

The Internet has caused people to think that everything should be free, but
it's not free to create or maintain. Paying for what you get is a much more
natural state of affairs and, in the long run, will benefit all of those who
do any kind of content creation - and that would include every photographer.