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Freenet: Will It Smash Copyright Law?

http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/163395.html


Freenet: Will It Smash Copyright Law?

By Kevin Featherly, Newsbytes

SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A.,

20 Mar 2001, 2:44 PM CST

This is an age, Ian Clarke says, when copyright laws and freedom of speech cannot coexist. One of them has to go. And, if he has anything to say about it, freedom of speech won't be the one.

[...]

No Names, Please

Perhaps the crux of Freenet's philosophy is the idea of anonymity. Clarke says anonymity is the essential element of unrestricted free speech. "If you cannot remain anonymous, then you can be punished for what you say, thus discouraging others from putting forward their opinions," he said.

It's an idea that has many champions, but Esther Dyson, founding chairman of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is not one of them. While she too believes that copyrights may need to go, replaced by such things as paid public appearances by writers and the like, in her book "Release 2.0," Dyson expresses reservations about encouraging the use of anonymity in online society.

"When people operate anonymously," Dyson writes, "there's no incentive to tell the truth; dishonest people easily betray others for their own gain. … Overall, everyone is worse off on average."

[...]


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