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Originally Posted by sciguy125
Personally, I think we're on the verge of a paradigm shift. I have a feeling that intellectual property laws will drastically change over the next few decades.
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It's the Internet Effect.
Nowadays anything you can ever imagine is just a few clicks away, and most of it can be obtained for free. (Even if illegally.)
As the number and extent of Internet usage continues to climb, we are shaping the future of the Internet. But at the same time, the Internet is shaping
our own future. Instant knowledge and gratification are now becoming increasingly part of our daily lives. A decade ago having Internet access was a privledge. Nowadays I can take my laptop, walk down my street, and come across nearly half a dozen unprotected Wi-Fi networks. In my house I can pick up two other networks, besides my own.
This Internet Age does not necessarily mean that society is taking a turn for the worse; rather is means that we are simply redefining our values. Any many of these values, although different, may quite have positive long-term benefits to society. Information and getting it quickly to people is the way of the future. Larry Page and Sergey Brin saw this in the late 1990s, and only a few years later Google is one of the world's biggest technology companies.
Living in Connecticut, I saw first hand how quickly blogging and the Internet caused Ned Lamont (who was totally unknown) to rise to popularity and win in the Democratic primary over the three-term Senator Joe Lieberman. The more people utilized the Internet, the more they seemed to like politics, and the more passionate they were for supporting their canidates. Because of all this, there was an extremely high voter turnout (as compared to historical primary attendence) in the Connecticut primaries.
Is democracy not the government of the people, by the people, for the people? Is the Internet not increasing public awareness and passion towards politics and being involved in shaping the future of the United States, and ultimately the world?
When other people look at the Internet, they may see anarchy. But I see freedom, democracy in action. Here is finally a global virtual world of the people, by the people, for the people. Here is our future. Some say war and forceful occupation of foreign countries is the best way to spread democracy. I say just give all six billion people on this planet one-hundred percent unadulterated and unfiltered Internet access, and anti-democratic governments will crumble faster than the Berlin Wall in 1989.