John Seago wrote:
The following site may be of some relevance/Interest to the abovementioned article:
The problem is that 'freedom of speech' is not always as grand as it sounds. For example, suppose the WTC attacks were coordinated using SSH, GPG &c? Or someone dumps a ton of child pornography onto Freenet, which thousands of altruists unwittingly spread all around the world while refusing to know who gave it to them? At the moment, I understand anyone can patch items on Freenet, so it could become a great virus distribution network.
Or perhaps I miss the point of the article, I apologise if I am preaching to the converted.
I believe the article was about economics rather than free speech. It was describing the imposed artificial state of the information economy, and the implicit warning is that such states never last forever.
Of course, one point the article misses IMHO is that musicians and software companies expect to receive more revenue if their product is popular. The most obvious way to deal with this is to add revenue per purchase, and by acquiring other than by purchasing you break this model. Perhaps the only unbreakable information sales model is to rely on donations and live performances. Not nearly as profitable.
Alexis