Freedom's Dark Side

The iron fist, the invisible hand, and the battle for the soul of open source. (…)
Logically – indeed, free-software geeks are the most logical hippies in the whole wide world – the revolution is at hand. Why should anybody pay for software? What do you get for your money besides shrink-wrap licenses, potential lawsuits, DRM cuffs around both wrists, and a cloud of viruses? „Property relations” are blocking social and technical progress. Secure computing and digital rights management are coercive regimes that would make George Orwell blush. The free market is a tissue of political fiction as brittle as an Eastern European regime. With open source code on tap, the software trade will collapse under its own weight.
(…)
As the former Soviet Union sadly demonstrates, if you depose the system and don’t replace it with anything, you unleash not only altruism but a host of dark traits no less human yet far more destructive. When that happens, you may well get things like well, like this remarkable souvenir I bought for about $1 in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
(…)
(via: pajęczaki; ale blox.)