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• Thursday, November 20, 2008 07:01 PM

  The needle's eye is winking

  Any insights on why? Do they have some sort of ideological belief that refuses to recognize copyright ownership or something?

  I can't offer any insight into commondreams ideology but I can give you some insight into one of the technical/philosophical (technosophical?) argument against copyright.

  Imagine if we invented a nano tech atom/molecule sewing/stiching machine. This machine would be capable of taking raw material, say a bucket of sand, break it down into a base atomic state and use those fundamental blocks to then stitch or sew something completely different, like an apple. We "scan" an apple once and from that blueprint we can turn sand into food.

  The invention of this machine would become the beginning of the post-scarcity era. We only have to make one machine because we can use the machine to duplicate the machine...and so on, until everyone has a machine.

  The end of scarcity. The end of starvation. The end of possessions. (cut to John Lennon at a grand piano)

  The big ethical question in the post scarcity era--Is it moral to create artificial scarcity? Should we put people in jail for turning sand into apples in order to keep power consolidated in the hands of the Big Fruit Companies or the government?

  The computer is the nano sewing machine of information.

  Nano sewing machine == end of physical scarcity

  Computer == end of information scarcity

  The computer began the post information scarcity era. Is it moral to create artificial scarcity?

  I support a seven year copyright*, so I am certainly not a true believer--at least until we have a nano sewing machine--but I think it is one hell of interesting moral question.

  I could ramble on this topic for hours but I will close with one final observation. If you think about how large corporations would react to the invention of the nano sewing machine--the completely absurd and totalitarian laws that would be written by a corrupt government desperately trying to hold on to the status quo--you can imagine what it is like to live as a tech person in the world today.

  *Seven years is my generous guess at the time it takes for the average copyrighted work to earn 99% of the total amount of money it will ever make. It is probably closer to three years. Disclaimer: I make/made a non trivial percentage of my money/income because of the current benefits afforded content producers under copyright laws. I have no doubt my beliefs are influenced by this.

  —thelastnamechosen Read thelastnamechosen's other letters
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