Limiting Intellectual Property

DMCA, copyrights, the U.S. Patent Office, encryption - All of these are used to limit access to intellectual property. Rather it be movies, music, software code, they are all locked down. This leads to a clash in the people who consume, modify and recreate knowledge and those trying to gain an economic advantage from the work they've done.

In my opinion, we all are entering the Information Revolution. Just as in the Industrial Revolution, factory owners controlled the means of production and therefore the economy. Because of the issues that occurred, the government set up limits to what the company can do to the workers and what the workers must do for the company. But it wasn't that easy. Before unions were legalized, the U.S. government routinely sent in forces in favor of factory owners, and workers died.

I think that's to the point we're coming to today. The government is allowing the controllers of IP remain unfettered to punish it's consumers and the society we live in. Then the day will come when the people have a voice, and things will get better. You may not have your music for free, but it won't be outrageous and those who did the work will benefit from the reward. Not the person who signs the slip of paper behind the desk.