And it Ain't Just the Government...

And it Ain't Just the Government -- From David Wienberger's Joho the Blog: Digital Lock-Down (NPR):

"Put 'em together - DRM, Digital ID and so-called trusted computing - and you have a world that's far more locked down than the real world ever could be. No leeway, no judgment calls, our computers will decide for us. Content companies will be happy, at least short term, because every note, word, image, phrase, every idea can be owned and tracked and accounted for. But the free market of ideas needs to let us play with works, incorporate the images and phrases and ideas into new works of our own. That's how culture grows. And if the Internet - the greatest force in history for growing the public domain - if the Internet ends up bringing on a regime of control that locks us out of our own culture, it won't be ironic...it'll be tragic."

This week I've rejoined the commuting crowd, and heard this commentary on NPR. I thought it made a lot of sense. I didn't catch the intro/outro, so I didn't know it was David. Now I know why it made sense.