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We must protect the Internet
Like everyone I have watched all three Zeitgeist films (the last has been released very recently, you can watch it here if you have not done so yet). I cannot say that I agree with all, but I certainly agree with much.
In particular, as it is often repeated, we must protect the Internet at all times.
Protect the Internet against what?
We must protect the Internet against big governments at war against their own citizens. We have very recently seen the Egyptian government shutting off the Internet in Egypt, and we don't want to see similar things again. And never think it cannot happen "at home", wherever that is: remember the Wikileaks case and remember that governments, all governments, are only interested in power, will do whatever it takes to preserve it at all costs, and are afraid of free speech (those who pay lip service to free speech for electoral reasons are often the first to complain when they hear some free speech).
See 3 Projects to Create a Government-less Internet and 4 More Projects to Create a Government-less Internet on ReadWriteWeb. I think it is evident that we need distributed, open source, open mobile mesh networks. See also How Phone-Powered Mesh Networks Could Help in Egypt with coverage of the very interesting Serval Project.
We must protect the Internet against big governments and big corporations that want to control it. They want a one-way Internet like the old TV system where we-the-sheeple can only consume content imposed for above, but we-the-people want a free, many-to-many, open and uncensored Internet like we had in the 80s and early 90s. Remember Usenet? Perhaps we should restart using some "old" communication systems, dated but more difficult to control.
Of course, in the 80s and early 90s only a few geeks were on the Internet, not enough people to do real damage and be seen as a threat. Now everyone is on the Internet and everyone is downloading songs and movies, and soon cracked e-books, and this is disrupting entrenched financial interests and power structures. I don't believe everything should be free, not in the current economic system. On the contrary I understand that if artists, writers and other creators cannot make money with their creative work, they will have to do something else for a living and everyone will lose. But creators only see a small fraction of the money, while all the rest goes to obsolescent production and distribution dinosaurs. These must go, and I wish to recommend to all creators to switch to distribution models like vodo.net. To all consumers, I recommend to download free-to-share content from vodo.net, for example the great SF series Pioneer One (here on vodo.net) and make a small donation to support the creators. Many small donations will permit creators to make a living while focusing on their creative work and, make no mistake, this model will kill the traditional model in the long run.
In the meantime, I support the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Pirate Party. I had never joined the Pirate Party, but I think immediately after finishing this post I will join the Italian Pirate Party (not the most active one, but Italy is where I can vote). I hope Pirate Parties will be successful everywhere and, someday, fight also for the right to use other emerging technologies for individual and social empowerment.
We must protect the Internet at all times, because big governments and big corporations will attack the Internet at all times to protect their power. Now Internet usage will be metered in Canada, and I am sure other countries will follow soon (unless, of course, we do something about it). Metered Internet usage makes sense to entrenched powers because it helps big national telcos to make more money, and also because it is a disincentive to download content, pirated or not.
Downloading pirated content is illegal. I believe it should not be illegal in the sense that the applicable laws and regulations should be changed, and I believe downloaders should not be prosecuted, but at this moment is illegal and we citizens should respect the law. But as I mentioned above there is also plenty of legally sharable content available, and we should be free to share it. I believe anti-piracy measures are aimed not only at protecting proprietary IP, but also and especially at slowing down the spread of alternative distribution channels for legally sharable content, and therefore I oppose anti-piracy measures.
We should be aware of all that we can do to protect the Internet at all times, and use distributed, open source, open mobile mesh networks when they will be available. In the meantime, existing technologies offer interesting possibilities that we should know and use. For example, FrostWire for Android, advertised as "The First Mobile P2P network on Earth", used with Android's personal Wi-Fi hotspot, permits easily creating local ad-hoc content sharing networks.
In particular, as it is often repeated, we must protect the Internet at all times.
Protect the Internet against what?
We must protect the Internet against big governments at war against their own citizens. We have very recently seen the Egyptian government shutting off the Internet in Egypt, and we don't want to see similar things again. And never think it cannot happen "at home", wherever that is: remember the Wikileaks case and remember that governments, all governments, are only interested in power, will do whatever it takes to preserve it at all costs, and are afraid of free speech (those who pay lip service to free speech for electoral reasons are often the first to complain when they hear some free speech).
See 3 Projects to Create a Government-less Internet and 4 More Projects to Create a Government-less Internet on ReadWriteWeb. I think it is evident that we need distributed, open source, open mobile mesh networks. See also How Phone-Powered Mesh Networks Could Help in Egypt with coverage of the very interesting Serval Project.
We must protect the Internet against big governments and big corporations that want to control it. They want a one-way Internet like the old TV system where we-the-sheeple can only consume content imposed for above, but we-the-people want a free, many-to-many, open and uncensored Internet like we had in the 80s and early 90s. Remember Usenet? Perhaps we should restart using some "old" communication systems, dated but more difficult to control.
Of course, in the 80s and early 90s only a few geeks were on the Internet, not enough people to do real damage and be seen as a threat. Now everyone is on the Internet and everyone is downloading songs and movies, and soon cracked e-books, and this is disrupting entrenched financial interests and power structures. I don't believe everything should be free, not in the current economic system. On the contrary I understand that if artists, writers and other creators cannot make money with their creative work, they will have to do something else for a living and everyone will lose. But creators only see a small fraction of the money, while all the rest goes to obsolescent production and distribution dinosaurs. These must go, and I wish to recommend to all creators to switch to distribution models like vodo.net. To all consumers, I recommend to download free-to-share content from vodo.net, for example the great SF series Pioneer One (here on vodo.net) and make a small donation to support the creators. Many small donations will permit creators to make a living while focusing on their creative work and, make no mistake, this model will kill the traditional model in the long run.
In the meantime, I support the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Pirate Party. I had never joined the Pirate Party, but I think immediately after finishing this post I will join the Italian Pirate Party (not the most active one, but Italy is where I can vote). I hope Pirate Parties will be successful everywhere and, someday, fight also for the right to use other emerging technologies for individual and social empowerment.
We must protect the Internet at all times, because big governments and big corporations will attack the Internet at all times to protect their power. Now Internet usage will be metered in Canada, and I am sure other countries will follow soon (unless, of course, we do something about it). Metered Internet usage makes sense to entrenched powers because it helps big national telcos to make more money, and also because it is a disincentive to download content, pirated or not.
Downloading pirated content is illegal. I believe it should not be illegal in the sense that the applicable laws and regulations should be changed, and I believe downloaders should not be prosecuted, but at this moment is illegal and we citizens should respect the law. But as I mentioned above there is also plenty of legally sharable content available, and we should be free to share it. I believe anti-piracy measures are aimed not only at protecting proprietary IP, but also and especially at slowing down the spread of alternative distribution channels for legally sharable content, and therefore I oppose anti-piracy measures.
We should be aware of all that we can do to protect the Internet at all times, and use distributed, open source, open mobile mesh networks when they will be available. In the meantime, existing technologies offer interesting possibilities that we should know and use. For example, FrostWire for Android, advertised as "The First Mobile P2P network on Earth", used with Android's personal Wi-Fi hotspot, permits easily creating local ad-hoc content sharing networks.
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