You may have noticed a bit of a trend recently. Groups of hackers are getting hold of stuff that has hitherto been kept locked up, and making it freely available online, much to the annoyance and embarrassment of those involved.
Well-known examples include Wikileaks, Anonymous and LulzSec, but we now have a new name to add to the list. Step forward (the possibly pseudonymous) Greg Maxwell, who has been provoked by the Aaron Swartz saga, which I wrote about earlier this week, to release some files of his own:
On Open Enterprise blog.
I think the reason for the anger is because now, more than ever, information is being locked up when it is becoming easier than ever to disseminate it at little to no cost to anyone. Plus, the fact that things like copyright and trademark which should be two-sided deals are really, really one-sided is becoming abundantly clear with the advent of the Internet.
ReplyDelete--
a Linux Mint user since 2009 May 1
@PV: I agree - it's that disconnect that's so frustrating.
ReplyDeleteIt's not just that there's a disconnect, because there has always been a disconnect at some level. It's that now more than ever, the disconnect is wider and more obvious.
ReplyDelete--
a Linux Mint user since 2009 May 1
@PV: indeed - blog posts coming up on this in moderately near future...
ReplyDelete