Темната страна на слободата

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Си го чистам дискот од некои стари работи и пронајдов текст од Брус Стерлинг објавен во Wired во септември 2003.

Со поднаслов The iron fist, the invisible hand, and the battle for the soul of open source., текстов отвара некои интересни прашања. Мал цитат:

So Europe's open source revolutionaries have a great model for fighting the power. But they rarely consider the aftermath. As the former Soviet Union sadly demonstrates, if you depose the system and don't replace it with anything, you unleash not only altruism but a host of dark traits no less human yet far more destructive. When that happens, you may well get things like well, like this remarkable souvenir I bought for about $1 in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

(...)

Thanks to this disaster for the people of the Balkans, I've got some nifty music to play in my walkman, and the information was practically free. Ceca won't get my money. Nor will her publisher, her backup musicians, her kids by the dead warlord, or her fellow mobsters. The Bosnians would never give Ceca her cut, because (a) they're amazingly crooked and (b) she's a Serb and they hate her guts. So, in an orgy of contempt for cops, lawyers, and WIPO, they steal her music, repackage it with lousy graphics and worse sound quality, and sell it for peanuts to passing Americans.

The denizens of Open Cultures want their connected collectivism to liberate the world from regulations, markets, and intellectual property. But what if victory only clears the way for corruption of their beloved culture? When I listen to Ceca, I have to wonder what dark passions and ancient evils have been held in check by the grim totalitarianism of the profit motive. We may yet find out.