ralpress.org

Lawrence Lessig predicting that the US government will use the pretext of an “Internet 9/11” to clamp down on the freedom of the network (the following is my own incomplete transcript):

“I had dinner once with with Richard [?] … and I said to him, is there an equivalent, is there a ‘Patriot Act’ or an ‘i-Patriot Act’ just sitting waiting for some substantial event that will become an excuse for radically changing the way the Internet works? And he said, ‘Of course there is!’ and I swear that this is what he said, and I quote, ‘And Vint Cerf is not going to like it very much’. So this is the big terror, right? They’re just sitting waiting for the invevitable to happen, and then SLAM!”

Source video

It’s even more alarming given the information in the first half of the clip about how the Patriot Act was conceived and introduced. This is Lawrence Lessig, a Professor of Law at Harvard, not some hysterical conspiracy nut. We’ve been warned people!

Arthur Charles in the Guardian:

“It’s a sort of capture of the internet industry by the content industry, mediated by government.”

This is surely one of the most ominous sentences imagineable for the free/Free software ecosystem (and for computer users in general)? I say this not because I support people ripping-off copyrighted work against its author’s wishes (I don’t), but because it’s very hard to accept that any such control wouldn’t be used to interfere with the public’s legitimate right to collaboratively create restriction-free software. (UPDATE: Here we go: French record labels sue, um, SourceForge)

Oh boy, this is such an important and involved topic. I really must get my thoughts in order and post a statement of my beliefs, lest I end up accused of unsupportable “freetard” sloganeering and posturing. Tonight maybe, if I have the time, I’ll post my thoughts on why most software should, and for the most part will, end up being made available without license restrictions.