He who controls the spice controls the universe
(Editors note: This piece was originally written in Sept 2007 but was never published; it evidently moved off the front page as a draft and was forgotten. Since the material is still relevant, I decided not to let a bit of content go to waste. )
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Cory Doctorow in the Guardian on free data sharing:
Since the 1970s, pundits have predicted a transition to an “information economy”. The vision of an economy based on information seized the imaginations of the world’s governments. For decades now, they have been creating policies to “protect” information: stronger copyright laws, international treaties on patents and trademarks, treaties to protect anti-copying technology.
The thinking is simple: an information economy must be based on buying and selling information. Therefore, we need policies to make it harder to get access to information unless you’ve paid for it.
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The world’s governments might have bought into the old myth of the information economy, but not so much that they’re willing to ban the PC and the internet.
Cory Doctorow is an activist, science fiction author and co-editor of the blog Boing Boing.
It’s a good article explaining why the Internet was no bubble for a lot of people but I think his premise is off. It’s not so much that the government bought into the “old myth” of how information needs to be secured instead of shared, it’s that they need it to be that way.
The old myth is not a myth. In a spice economy, he who controls the spice controls the universe. In an information economy, he who controls the information controls the universe.
