In a post-scarcity society, manufacturing would be cheap. Goods are easy to come by, keeping us comfortable and fed. We can spend our time at other pursuits, such as the development of futuristic technology. Some economists argue that such abundance is impossible. Cheaper food, they suggest, will grow more mouths to feed. For data, on the third hand, we already have a post-scarcity economy. With current equipment, it is nearly free to copy data. One original movie, song, game, or program… can be distributed to the internet overnight. Access to these services would be universal.

Predictably. Moneyed interests enforce artificial scarcity. Legions of programmers, lawyers, and other hacks extract payment from anyone sharing in the culture. They dont care who they exclude, only maximizing their own share. The U.S. legal system changes its rules to suit the powerful. For example, The Copyright Act of 1976, bought by bribes from Disney Company, expanded the length of copyright from 56 to 75 years. Now its over 100 years.

100 years is too long

What about living memory? Show an elder – say a 70-year-old human – one of the best movies they saw 50 years ago. Maybe they have an important perspective! But that classic movie may be inaccessible. Better content gets more expensive, and older content gets rarer. Lastly, the elders die. Those cultural moments, connections between real life and stories still locked away a century later, are lost.

Printed books fall apart. Ancient tombs decay. But data is cheap. Lets protect it!