You can steal content, but you can’t steal me

Books for sale by street vendors, Delhi, India
Books for Sale | Delhi, India | Jan 2008

“When everyone’s a creator, there’s less room for high-quality professional content.”

… and paradoxically, it’s becoming harder to harder to find it.

Content is becoming a commodity in an era where an increasing amount of value is being consumed without any direct exchange of money.

What is going on? The fundamental shift is the democratization and increased availability of the tools to share, promote and distribute content.

If you make money by creating and selling content, you should worry. Who should worry?

Kevin Kelly

When copies are free, you need to sell things which can not be copied.

Hmm. What can’t me copied?

Me. (and you.)

You can steal my content, you can steal my thoughts, you can steal my photography, but you can’t steal me.

Obviously we want to be paid for what we create, and I believe in property rights. But if everybody has the tools to create and distribute, how can we protect our content?

Perhaps instead of thinking of what we can protect, think about what we can give away. It’s not a new idea. But the idea is extending into industries and businesses in ways that we have only started to see.

It can apply to you and your business, your career, your job, your life. What can you create and get paid for that cannot be copied?

—

Posted April 14th, 2008 in Perspective, Photography. Tags: business, business model, chris anderson, content, copy, democratization, free, kevin kelley, Photography, value.

Hello, I'm Taylor Davidson.

I'm an early-stage VC and a photographer. If you liked this post, please subscribe to this blog. For more like this, check out the archives, and follow me on Twitter @tdavidson.

http://www.conversationagent.com Valeria Maltoni

The interesting thing with trying to repackage something that someone else says/writes – their content and ideas – is that one does not know what is behind it – experience, knowledge, insights, strengths, talent, voice, etc. – and so it will become by default different, something else. The value is in the experience of the execution, as you shared here. Nice to meet you, Taylor.
http://www.conversationagent.com Valeria Maltoni

The interesting thing with trying to repackage something that someone else says/writes – their content and ideas – is that one does not know what is behind it – experience, knowledge, insights, strengths, talent, voice, etc. – and so it will become by default different, something else. The value is in the experience of the execution, as you shared here. Nice to meet you, Taylor.
http://www.taylordavidson.com/writing Taylor Davidson

Value from continuous, sustainable, adapting execution in a changing environment.

It's possible to copy content / ideas / solutions, but it completely loses the understanding of the process, the context and application. Its those things you point out – experience, knowledge, insights, voice, etc. – that allow people to re-create content using their process to create new value.

Meaning: you can copy my content and my ideas once, but I'm always changing.
http://www.taylordavidson.com/writing/ Taylor Davidson

Value from continuous, sustainable, adapting execution in a changing environment.

It's possible to copy content / ideas / solutions, but it completely loses the understanding of the process, the context and application. Its those things you point out – experience, knowledge, insights, voice, etc. – that allow people to re-create content using their process to create new value.

Meaning: you can copy my content and my ideas once, but I'm always changing.
http://www.taylordavidson.com/writing/2008/11/17/start-here/ Start Here: Photography Business Models | Taylor Davidson

[...] You can steal content, but you can’t steal me You can steal my content, you can steal my thoughts, you can steal my photography, but you can’t steal me. [...]

Subscribe to the blog

Recent Posts