In 2003 Cory Doctorow presented an early form of his legendary DRM Rant at the Future Salon, back in these early days, we hosted the Future Salon still at the Barns and Noble in San Mateo.
It was impressive enough that the next day I joined the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Cory just posted an update or a summary of his thinking about DRM, copyright, IP, and Free/Open Software.
He writes: Today, Locus published my longest, most substantial column ever, a piece that I wrote in something of a white heat about a month ago, called (somewhat ironically): "IP."
"Software isn’t just a way to put IP into otherwise inert objects. It’s also a way to automate them, to make them into unblinking, ever-vigilant enforcers for the manufacturer/monopolist’s interests. They can detect and interdict any attempt at unauthorized interoperability, and call the appropriate authorities to punish the offenders."
The last two sentences of Cory's epic column take it home:
There are no digital rights, only human rights.
There is no software freedom, only human freedom.
Let's protect our freedom!