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by patrickk 5812 days ago
The problem with clamping down on piracy is where do you draw the line? On one end of the continuum is the 'totally-open' model that has been there since the advent of the web, and the other end of the continuum is China, which employs an army of workers (http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2010/03/...) to censor content that the government deems 'inappropriate'. Starting to apply measures to clamp down on the web in any way is stepping onto a slippery slope. Look at the McCarthy communist witch hunts of the 1950s or the USA PATRIOT Act for examples of how power is abused in the name of protecting us from 'communists' and 'terrorists'. Who is to say that 'Pirates' won't the the next label to be vilified?

Granted, neither end of the continuum is ideal, but I know which side I'd rather be on. The web has been a magnificent haven for innvovation in the twenty or so years it's been with us, let's not do anything to f%%k it up (Butterfly Effect and all that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect)

2 comments

"The problem with clamping down on piracy is where do you draw the line?"

Why should the GNU get any more attention or rights than anything else? If people can't respect my copyrighted work, I sure as hell won't respect GNU licensed software.

China may not be the best example. They pirate almost as an institutional policy.