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The End of Free
The Atlantic has up an insightful piece from its print edition called Closing the Digital Frontier. Michael Hirschorn takes readers through a jaundiced version of the familiar story of the rise and dominance of the "Information wants to be free" meme, then claims that the era of freedom is now over. "...the phrase Information wants to be free... became perhaps the most powerful meme of the past quarter century; so powerful, in fact, that multibillion-dollar corporations destroyed their own businesses at its altar. ... But now, it seems, things are changing all over again. The shift of the digital frontier from the Web, where the browser ruled supreme, to the smart phone, where the app and the pricing plan now hold sway, signals a radical shift from openness to a degree of closed-ness that would have been remarkable even before 1995. ... It’s far from a given that this shift will generate the kinds of revenue media companies are used to: for under-30s whelped on free content, the prospect of paying hundreds or thousands of dollars yearly for print, audio, and video (on expensive new devices that require paying AT&T $30 a month) is not going to be an easy sell. Yet lack of uptake by young people will hardly stop the rush to apps. There’s too much potential upside."
LiveJournal? What is that?
Oh, you mean Livejournal. Now your arbitrary capitalisation has gone mid-word! You should check your code. Your buffer must have overflown scrambling to be first to cast a throwaway mention of the iPad as product placement (with your lame, intentional mistyping) seems to have broken down your "English" routines.
All you're missing is a well-rounded, impotent M$ in your comment to complete the Circle of Troll.
I really wish you folks would stop writing "noone". It's two words, no one. "Noone" reads like "noon" and slows reading down.
Mods, my "no karma bonus" button doesn't seem to work, so please mod me offtopic. Thx.
Free Martian Whores!
"Information wants to be liberated"?
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
>>>>> "Information wants to be liberated"?
>>
>> If your a bush-ite, that'd be the wording.
Sorry but I don't see the connection to Bush. If this is some vague reference to the war, I now take this opportunity to remind you that Obama has made the war even larger than it was (sent more troops/spent more money). These men are two halves of the same asshole.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Okay this is the second one of my post modded -1 troll or -1 flamebait.
DEAR MODERATORS:
Clicking -1 is not how you say "I disagree." The method of saying I disagree is to click reply and SAY "I disagree". Your job is not to mod people's posts into invisibility (0) or (-1). Your job is not censorship.
SIGNED,
SLASHDOTTER (me)
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall