Via wzzrd:

MP3 and GIF both prove that if you allow liberal licensing early in a technology’s lifespan, network effects create much more value down the road when you can change licenses to capture value created by delivering images and data in those formats. Basically wait for everyone to start using it and then make everyone pay down the road. (Three words: unpredictable business costs.)

I guess the problem is that most of us won’t worry about any of this: most of us are subscribers, not publishers. That’s not to say it is not important. It’s ugly.