Napster and DeCSS: Is it about free speech or free stuff? General IP Issues9/6/2000; 4:36:07 PM The single most balanced article I've seen on the topic. Sure to be ignored because it's too sane.(No good pull-quote. It's actually a two-in-one essay:

1. If you want music to be free, make like the free software people and make some free music and distribute it, don't steal commercial music.
2. The content owners shouldn't be cracking down on people making fair use, they should be cracking down on honest-to-goodness pirates.)

Observation: If the music companies and movie companies weren't trying to rape consumers in the mistaken impression that we won't mind buying the same song 4 times (two cars, home, and work) and the same movie twice (once VCR, once DVD), I would not feel as sympathetic towards the "information wants to be free" people as I do (even though I disagree with them, too... this essay matches my opinions pretty well). It's a defensive reaction in me, trying to support the "information wants to be free" people as a counter-balance to corporate rapaciousness. I expect this to be a normal reaction as more people start to understand what these companies are trying to pull. If the companies would mellow, some of these problems may well go away on their own!