[kintamanimatt]

Those who lived through that period and paid attention are probably well aware of the ridiculous notion that information flows should be controlled in order to protect the children or whatever the fig-leaf of the day is. Ask the Iranian and the Chinese people how they like their firewalls.

Let’s make sure it ends up on the side of freedom and democracy, and not on the side of DRM and other forms of control and digital oppression.

If my observations are correct then such a swing is about to happen, and this time we had better get it right.

The author states the concern and the desirable outcome, but how do we, individually, make sure the pendulum swings in the correct direction?

[RobAley]

The simplest way is through the use of your wallet. Buy "open". E.g.

- Need a new desktop? Buy one that doesn't lock down uefi by default, and runs linux compatible hardware

- New phone? Buy one with Firefox OS if you can wait that long, or at least go for one with a stock Android install

- New book? Buy one from independent publishers/authors who don't support DRM [1]

- New app? Don't use a commercial app store, get it direct from the publisher

- Music? you get the idea.

Voting with your wallet and putting money on the side of open helps keep commercial operators swinging in that direction. As far as government is concerned, I've no idea.

[1] Swift plug : http://leanpub.com for books, in particular http://leanpub.com/php ....

[edit] In response to the assorted "we're too small a minority" comments below, I would argue that historically with IT that isn't an issue. The internet & web were minority pursuits at one point, commercial walled gardens like AOL were much more common and popular, until the small minority of tech leaders (just like us) forged ahead anyway and showed with our feet how much better it can be. The people reading HN, while comparatively small in number compared to the general population, I think underestimate the power they (and others like them) have to influence the tech lives of their customers, users, friends and family. It doesn't always appear that common sense can beat big money when it comes to affecting the choices made by the general populous, but have some faith in your fellow humanity, these sways are usually only temporary.

[Draiken]

Even if we do that, it's only 0.000001% of the people doing it. It doesn't even begin to scratch the big threats.

People are so easily bought by them that all our efforts seem so small.

I really think we're not gonna be able to change the swing back to freedom. 10 years from now, we're gonna be 100% controlled by them and, as the author said, the Life-as-a-Service era will start.

[mikecane]

>>>New book? Buy one from independent publishers/authors who don't support DRM [1]

You must have forgotten the raging battle between Doctorow and the eBookstores. He and his publisher didn't want DRM, but the stores did. This is part of the point the writer is making about the pendulum swinging.

[RobAley]

Indeed. Lets amend that to "publishers/authors/stores". Many authors and/or publishers are letting you buy direct from their own sites as well as at mainstream ebookstores, so there is often that choice. Again, see [1]

[mikecane]

eBooks are my thing. The number of writers selling direct isn't even a rounding error. And if publishers were doing so well on their own, they'd have dropped all the other stores to increase their takes.

[RobAley]

You're entirely right, but I think you're missing the point. This thread is about how to we change the current situation, i.e. how to effect which way the needle swings. There is enough of an acorn in the number of authors and publishers that do sell direct online (and stores that don't support DRM) that it is something we can build on by supporting them. The question asked is what can we do, not what has already been done.

[Edit] Also, to clarify, the number of authors selling direct (or via new style lean publishers) is more than a rounding error. The number of popular authors probably isn't. But WHO the popular authors are is not static, and my gut feeling is you will see that rapidly change if the needle swings the way we hope it does. And remember than, bestsellers aside, there is a very long tail in publishing (particularly e-publishing).

[kranner]

This being in the context of a binary choice, it shares a basic flaw of any 2-party democracy: if there are more customers voting the wrong way (i.e., "closed"), commercial operators have no incentive to go open.

If you know your opinion is not mainstream, why limit your choices of commercial goods this way?

[vibrunazo]

Not sure if I'm following you. Are you saying we shouldn't vote because our only 1 vote is meaningless in the crowd?

[loup-vaillant]

Voting is not enough. When you're in the minority, you also need to be loud about it. The hard part is not to be annoying or low-status in the process.

[kranner]

No, because this is not just voting. It is voting + limiting our choices to things we support ethically. I may prefer the openness of the Android stores to the iOS App Store, but if the latter offers higher quality software for whatever I seek, there seems little point in giving it up merely to make a political point.

[chii]

so basically, this points out the fact that a higher quality piece of software beats out openness. And therefore, you have the reason for which the mainstream chooses the closed garden instead of the open ecosystem.

The masses aren't stupid - they in fact chooses very carefully, according to parameters that are more wide ranging that the narrow viewpoint the tech community focuses on.

[gurkendoktor]

- When something about Apple (or another walled garden) sucks, generate publicity.

[gbog]

The kind of freedom we get from open systems is like insurance, you need to pay a bit now to get the benefit later. It is also like saying money, you keep spending to much now because you might need it later.

These rational behaviors can be and are taught, usually from your parents. Saying again and again to your friends and relatives that walled gardens and devices you don't own are bad and wrong, and that a shiny box or a sexy aesthetics are less important, will have some effect in the long term.

It is the same as teaching kids to not trust ads. The result is not guaranteed but you have to do it anyway.