“Buying” a song or album will really mean buying the right to access the appropriate bits. You will be able to listen at home, at work, or on vacation, without carrying around a collection of titles. Anyplace you go where there are audio speakers connected to the highway, youÕll be able to identify yourself and take advantage of your rights … In any noncommercial setting, anywhere you go, youÕll have the right to play the song without additional payment to the copyright holder. In the same way, the information highway could keep track of whether you had bought the right to read a particular book or to see a movie. If you had, youÕd be able to call it up at anytime, from any information appliance anywhere.
Predictor: Gates, Bill
Prediction, in context:In his 1995 book “The Road Ahead,” Microsoft CEO Bill Gates writes: ÒThe information will enable innovations in the way that intellectual property, such as music and software, is licensed. Record companies, or even individual recording artists, might choose to sell music a new way. You, the consumer, wonÕt need compact discs, tapes, or any other kinds of physical apparatus. The music will be stored as bits of information on a server on the highway. ÔBuyingÕ a song or album will really mean buying the right to access the appropriate bits. You will be able to listen at home, at work, or on vacation, without carrying around a collection of titles. Anyplace you go where there are audio speakers connected to the highway, youÕll be able to identify yourself and take advantage of your rights. You wonÕt be allowed to rent a concert hall and play that recording of the music or create an advertisement that incorporated it. But in any noncommercial setting, anywhere you go, youÕll have the right to play the song without additional payment to the copyright holder. In the same way, the information highway could keep track of whether you had bought the right to read a particular book or to see a movie. If you had, youÕd be able to call it up at anytime, from any information appliance anywhere. This personal, lifetime buyout of rights is similar to what we do today when we buy a music disc or tape, or book, except that there is no physical medium involved.Ó
Biography:Bill Gates, the most influential technology entrepreneur of the late 20th century, was the primary author of the prediction-packed 1995 book “The Road Ahead” and is the founder and CEO of Microsoft Corporation. (Entrepreneur/Business Leader.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Copyright/Intellectual Property/Plagiarism
Name of publication: The Road Ahead (book)
Title, headline, chapter name: Chapter 8: Friction-Free Capitalism
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Pages 175, 176
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne