Comment 73171

By Undustrial (registered) - website | Posted January 18, 2012 at 21:41:40

I might have some sympathy for the argument that "pirates" are "stealing" from musicians and writers if even a tiny fraction of the prices we pay for their goods ever made it back to them. Our "creative class" (not my favourite term, but it fits here) is NOT being fairly compensated for their enormous contributions to our society, and that's something most of us who have artist and musician friends know all too well. Where is the money going? To the kind of companies which support SOPA, who own "intellectual property" empires.

Anyone who has a smartphone can see where this is going. An environment where we don't own what's running on our computers, pay for every program and file from small corporate "marketplaces" and pay large monthly fees for all of it. Not only would this be obscenely profitable, but it would also help stomp out the ability of these devices to be used for dissent. As Borrelli points out, they want to turn it back into an old-style one way medium. That's something we all have a very solid interest in preventing.

"Today, the notion of progress in a single line without goal or limit seems perhaps the most parochial notion of a very parochial century." — Lewis Mumford

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