Quote:
Originally Posted by Giggleton
Yes it's about freedom, the freedom to govern yourself. Our elected officials should in internet theory be just as exposed as everyone else  |
How does letting the government and/or corporate entities monitor
more of your information lead to more freedom? I don't think you've thought that part through.
The easiest way to gain freedom is to have a system where people get paid for their work, and then don't care what you do with it. In the digital age, the "don't care what you do with it" part is the problem. There are too many reasons for the stakeholders (authors, publishers, etc.) to care. Current DRM techniques are an attempt at a solution to that problem, but they lead to other, worse restrictions. The lending mechanism, introduced first by Nook and then Kindle, is an attempt to find a middle ground, but the current restrictions on it (one lend per book, two weeks duration) are too restrictive. If the user could set the duration of the lend (or make it indefinite) and could lend a book as many times as they wanted, I think that would go a long way towards removing the most onerous restrictions on e-books.
And, of course, someone has to win the format war, as always happens with technology.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Giggleton
Can we just abandon the monetary system already!!
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No. Money is good. It facilitates trade, and levels the playing field, so that you don't always have to be concerned that the person you want to barter with doesn't want anything you have to offer.