Thursday, June 17, 2004

waiting for the sun on the mountain


Good old King Crimson...always saying something vague enough to link to whatever you're thinking...and I'm thinking about copyright. Cory Doctorow went to Microsoft to give a talk on why Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a Bad Thing. If the Powers That Be have convinced you that all downloading is STEALING and that all the music and movies that could exist on your computer have to be LOCKED UP to protect starving artists, go read his talk.

He's released it into the public domain, and you can read his two science fiction novels as well as a short story collection he's written. They're not crappy, they're not being given away as loss-leaders...he's just putting his money where his mouth is on the issue of promoting his work by giving it away. Confused? Don't be. Also look at Baen Books, who found that giving their books away over the Internet increases their sales. Stick that in your paranoia pipe and smoke it, Ellison.

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