This article from the WSJ makes me wonder if it's not time to think about exploring older alternative to the Web for organizing and for the distribution of radical ideas. Should we be experimenting with setting up print-&-reprint hand-to-hand networks to begin supplementing and sidestepping web dependence? Might be fun testing this out with all off-site flash gatherings.
I was asked in a FB comment how it could be in the interest of copyright lobbyists to restrict speech, as they are in the business of selling speech. I see no conflect here; copyright lobbyists will let themselves be used for a price. That's their job. So-called intellectual property that makes money (the only kind they're interested in protecting) is not likely to be perceived as a threat, while control of commercial property provides a convenient lever to restrict anything perceived as threatening.
To the degree that radical ideas and organizations become effective, control of the web will become inevitable & unstoppable--keeping in mind, that control may not take the form of repressive censorship, as the snoops would not want to give up such a prime platform for involuntary informants. Whatever the form, we should get used to this idea. Big Brother has been around for at least the last 27 years!
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