[Ecommerce] [Fwd: You Own Nothing: Robertson on DRM, GNU/Linuxon XBox]

[CHARLES BRITTON]

.. and the phrase I have coined to describe this process is the
"de-gentrification of intellectual property".  Before the invention of
the printing press, the Church essentially had a monopoly on access to
recorded information, but the Renaissance and Reformation broke that
mould and brought the capacity for increasing numbers of people to
possess a copy of information works.  This built if you like an
intellectual 'gentry', characterised by ownership.

There is nothing in history that says we should take that for granted.
Ownership is being withdrawn, and one possible future is a Digital Dark
Age.

Best regards

Charles

Charles C. Britton
Senior Policy Officer, IT and Communications
Australian Consumers' Association


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