Gift Economy

Before today, I did not even know what a gift economy was, or if I even participated in it. Now, I know that I do and mostly every single web user has used and contributed to the web economy one way or another. Gifford Pinchot points to a book called The Gift: The Erotic Life of Property, Lewis Hyde. He says that in a gift economy, status is accorded to those who give the most to others. He provides us with an example of people who give the most to the gift economy. Scientists of high stature, he says, are not the ones who are most knowledgeable, but are ones who have contributed most. He adds, “A scientist of great knowledge, but only minor contributions is almost pitied - his or her career is seen as a waste of talent” (Pinchot: The Gift Economy).

According to Wikipedia, a gift economy is defined as a social theory which goods and services are given without the direct, immediate return (Wikipedia, 2008). It says that it differs from planned, barter and market economies in that return is expected from exchange. Pollack continues, “Why would anyone give away such valuable advice? What can explain the amount of cooperation that does occur in online communities?”.

He talks about the internet gift economy when people pass on free advice or offer useful information, the recipient is often unknown to them and the giver may never encounter the recipient again. The end result being, the usual obligation of a loose reciprocity between two specific individuals is difficult or impossible (The Economies of Online Cooperation).

One example provided by Pollack is from face-to-face interaction,” if I help a stranded motorist in my community, I do not expect that motorist to return the favor, but I may hope and expect someone else in the community to offer me aid should I be in a similar situation” (The Economies of Online Cooperation).

A message board that I often frequent that offers Real Estate Investment advice is an example of a gift economy. There are a lot of people like myself, that browse around for information that you are looking for, whether it be in residential, commercial real estate or financing. If you are looking for answers on a particular topic, there are experts who are currently in the industry that are willing to help you. They provide valuable advice to people who ask questions and people who are starting out and people who just need guidance.

Another example of a gift economy is social networking sites like Facebook. It is a place where you share and receive information from people in your networks. You can connect with people in college, old High School buddies and distant family members. The more you contribute to the site, the more you can maximize your experience and the less you contribute the less you get in return.

Gift Economy. (n.d) Wikipedia. Retrieved September 19 2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gift_economy#cite_note-0

Kollack, Peter. “The Economies of Online Cooperation: Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace”. 1999

Pinchot, Gifford. “The Gift Economy”. 1995 <>

Copyright and the Music Industry

Copyright, according to Merriam Webster is defined as “the exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish, sell, or distribute the matter and form of something such as a literary, musical, or artistic work” (Merriam- Webster). Since the turn of the 21^st century, the issue of copyright and copyright infringement have been hot topics. Ever since the advent of the peer to peer file sharing with the existence of Napster, Kazaa and Limewire and other forms of media entertainment, record labels have been ferociously fighting to protect the content of their and protect their profits.

The music industry dropped the ball in the late 1990’s when it failed to pick up on the newest technology out at the time, the internet. The industry failed to prepare for what was to come in terms of quickly losing control of its content to tech savvy computer users. The industry should have taken a more proactive stance in the way how they sell music to its customers. Instead of believing that the audience would continually pay exorbitant amounts of money to purchase a mediocre album with 2 or 3 “good” songs, they should have started selling singles online to set a precedent on how music should be bought and used. But now that more tech savvy users are taking advantage of peer to peer music sites, the industry is fighting back by filing lawsuits against those who “steal” music.

In one case, 12 year old Brianna LaHara in New York, “told the New York Post she was terrified to learn she was among the hundreds of people sued for alleged copyright infringement. “I thought it was OK to download music because my mom paid a service fee for it. Out of all people, why did they pick me?"”. Brianna’s mother, Sylvia Torres claims the lawsuit “was a total shock”. She says she purchased Kazaa for a $29.99 surcharge and did not realize that peer to peer downloading was illegal (PBS: Online News Hour). Cases like these are causing a fan backlash against a dying music industry.

A result of music downloading has been the large decline in record sales within the past 8 years. According to an MSNBC report, record sales declined a whopping 17% from the previous year and the decline is primarily caused by music downloading. Record downloading sales jumped 53% to 250.8 million compared to 164.2 million in the same period last year, according to the report (MSNBC: Album Sales decline as downloads are up).

Some artists are adapting to this wave of digital music downloading by practically giving their music away for free online. In an extremely risky way, Radiohead, release its album entitled In Rainbows for free or for whatever the buyer felt the albums was worth, available for download. Approximately 1.2 million downloaded to the tune of $10 million dollars profit (Wired: Radiohead $10 million in album sales). They are basically giving their buyers a chance to decide what there album was worth by letting them decide what to pay for it. I’m sure Radiohead received additional media publicity and money from concert sales as well.

So the Music Recording Industry has a ways to go if it wants to ever recover from dropping the ball in the late 1990’s when it failed to adapt to the technological revolution which was the internet. This is the first time that the public is able to get something for free instantly. And that's something that the Recording Industry has yet come to grips with. How do you compete with free?

Associated Press. “Album sales decline as downloads are up.” MSNBC. 20 Apr 2007. < http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18220349/>

Buskirk, Eliot Van. “ Estimates: Radiohead Made Up To $10 Million on Initial Album Sales.” Wired. 19 Oct 2007. < http://blog.wired.com/music/2007/10/estimates-radio.html>

Merriam-Webster Online.

Online News Hour. “MUSIC INDUSTRY FILES HUNDREDS OF LAWSUITS AGAINST INTERNET SONG SWAPPERS.” PBS. <http://www.pbs.org/newshour/media/media_watch/july-dec03/riaalawsuits_09-09-03.html>