Happy Fourth of July, wherever your citizenship. This is the anniversary of the ratification of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, shown here. We are but one of many nations with declarations against colonialist greedsters.
Among copyfighters, today should mean plenty. The DMCA/DRM/Bono combo favored by the big entertainment conglomerates is the equivalent of the old British Stamp Act--a way to transfer extra billions to Hollywood giants and similar copyright cartels from people throughout the world, including the Third World. And yes, as shown by the Eyes on the Prize case, we are also talking about free speech issues. This Independence Days, let’s pledge to ask politicians–well before elections–how they feel about copyright. Think about encouraging the use of Creative Commons material and the rest, but realize that this is no substitute for the legal and peaceful overthrow or transformation of Hollywood-bought governments, whether in the States or elsewhere. Meanwhile happy 34th anniversary to Project Gutenberg and special thanks to one of the Patrick Henrys and Thomas Paines of free books, Michael Hart. Hey, Michael, you can be exasperating in areas such as organizational governance and ergonomics, but I like what you helped set in motion.
