Limited Editions
Can there be a Limited Edition of information products?
I thought about this after I came across a site that discusses nothing but limited edition foods. I didn’t realize this was the big business that it is. I’m certainly familiar with the Franklin Mint and all their limited edition products. And nobody who has kids these days is unaware of the long parade of Disney limited edition releases, but food was a new concept. There’s no collectible factor here (except the packaging, and everybody knows from watching Antiques Roadshow that the most value comes from having the product along with intact packaging). With food, there is a pure, fleeting experience and then memories. I guess you could take a picture of yourself eating the food, but the actual taste cannot be preserved (that I know of, anyway).
In the information age that we live in, it’s kind of refreshing to find an experience where preservation is not only not the goal, but is actually impossible. There is no digital storage of tastes (again, I add the disclaimer, “that I know of”).
And then I got to thinking, can there be a limited edition of copyrightable material? There can certainly be limited editions of the package that the information is put in - witness the Disney Classics Collection mentioned above - but what about the information itself? Kind of a philosophical question, I admit. Viewing a photograph can be a one-time experience, but what if the photo caused a shift in your perceptions? Written stories and articles can likewise change your view of the world, and are often disseminated further through the oral tradition.
I guess I’d like to think that information is not limited, even if it’s just to an edition.
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