Earlier this month we noted how Disney and ESPN had sued Sling TV for the cardinal sin of actually trying to innovate. Sling TV’s offense: releasing new, more convenient day, weekend, or week-long shorter term streaming subscriptions that provided an affordable way to watch live television.
These mini-subscriptions, starting at around $5, have already proven to be pretty popular. But, of course, it challenges the traditional cable TV model of getting folks locked into recurring (and expensive) monthly subscriptions. Subscriptions that often mandate that you include sports programming many people simply don’t want to pay for.
So of course Time Warner has now filed a second lawsuit (sealed, 1:25-mc-00381) accusing Dish Network of breach of contract. In the complaint, Warner Bros lawyer David Yohai argues that this kind of convenience simply cannot be allowed.
The same could have been said in feudal times. However, thanks to smarter people, silly arguments like this didn’t stop attempts at progress. If people of the past followed your own logic, you’d be a slave right now. Think about that.
Feudalism is a fixed structure of society, that was also capitalist.
To day we have democracy which is better but is also capitalist.
In principle capitalism is usually about free markets that are generally controlled, because otherwise the system quickly collapses.
Attempts at non free market systems is generally planned economy, for instance the infamous Soviet Union 5 year plans.
To get rid of capitalism we need to get rid of all shortages for everybody, and that is not on the near horizon.
Feel free to think of a solution, but let’s not throw overboard what has worked better than anything else, before we have something real to replace it with.
And not just philosophical bullshit about how nice it would be.