Story (awhile ago) goes that Peter Gabriel was approached by some of his nervous management people who were panicked and pixilated with reports that they were losing millions of dollars in potential income in Indonesia where illegal bootleg copies of his cds were selling like hotcakes (maybe rice cakes - it was Indonesia). Gabriel's response was simple. "Lets book a tour to Indonesia, then."
Most people who claim to be capitalists are bad capitalists - morons basically. In this instance at least Gabriel showed that he understood capitalism, marketing and art making. Rare I admit, but refreshing. Here, in our ongoing experiment in creating a democratic republic, with our Constitution, an informed (and educated) public is the primary strategy for success and functionality. During the last few decades of the 20th century our society moved backwards in this regard. Our technology advanced to a point to make information access and educational opportunity universal, regardless of geographic or economic constraints. But our politics of corporate dominance/control of human freedoms and needs has moved us in an opposite, almost feudal direction. Any functional copywrite system would balance the rights of the creator with the commonwealth of the citizens. The actual lifetime of the creator should be the actual copywrite period - with no renewal or passing on the rights. No corporation should be able to hold a copywrite, only license them from individuals during the individual's lifetime. I know that sounds radical to those educated and brainwashed by the corporate apologists, but hey, the American revolution is a radical process. That ideas should freely spread over the globe, for the and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expandable over all space, without lessening their density at any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement, or exclusive appropriation. ?Thomas Jefferson, in an 1813 letter to Isaac McPherson There is not such a cradle of democracy upon the earth as the Free Public Library, this republic of letters, where neither rank, office, nor wealth receives the slightest consideration. ?Andrew Carnegie The richest person in the world - in fact. All the riches in the world - couldn't provide you with anything like the endless, incredible loot available at your local library. You can measure the awareness, the breadth and the wisdom of a civilization, a nation, a people by the priority given to preserving these repositories of all that we are, all that we were, or will be. ?Malcolm Forbes When you are growing up, there are two institutional places that affect you most powerfully - the church, which belongs to God, and the public library, which belongs to you. The public library is a great equalizer. Keith Richards (I guess all those drugs and drinks didn't do as much damage to Keith as one might imagine!) My alma mater was books, a good library. ?Malcolm X Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation. ?Walter Cronkite The best thing about the library is that it is available not only to me, but to everyone. It does not discriminate. It makes itself available to those who want to use it. ?David Horowitz Public libraries have been a mainstay of my life. They represent an individual's right to acquire knowledge; they are the sinews that bind civilized societies the world over. Without libraries, I would be a pauper, intellectually and spiritually. ?James A. Michener The library is central to our free society. It is a critical element in the free exchange of information at the heart of our democracy. ?Vartan Gregorian Here was one place where I could find out who I was and what I was going to become. And that was the Public Library. ?Jerzy Kosinski A library book...is not, then, an article of mere consumption, but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, is their only capital. ?Thomas Jefferson Censorship, like charity, should begin at home; but unlike charity, it should end there. ?Clare Booth Luce Most technologies hold the promises of amazing human good and hideous human evil within their potential use. One of the best elements of the digital technologies that bring us together on this list, is that they bring access to a world of libraries to every desktop or table that hold a computer connected to the internet. Information probably does not want to be free. But it needs to be free. MM -- The iMac List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... 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