... My interest in Free lies in the part played by the worldwide web in his thinking. At least in America, there's now a vociferous free-culture movement that argues the time has come to redefine our understanding of "the public domain".
Writers like James Boyle are developing a libertarian theory of copyright which argues that "the commons of the mind" should be freed up to liberate a moribund society. Open networks, goes the argument, will immediately have a positive effect on our culture and our communications networks.
Free speech, cultural access, digital creativity and the innovations of science are also the watchword of the Pirate Party in Sweden, which now has a platform for its ideas in the European Parliament. Such ideas enjoy a wide currency in forward-looking California, where Google is the Vatican City of such beliefs. The Google Initiative (public-spirited digitisation of the world's libraries or Grand Theft Book, depending on your point of view) is all about "free".
One of the stumbling blocks to the liberation of copyright has always been the remuneration of the Artist. Free, subtitled "The Future of a Radical Price" (aka Nothing), may just be the first draft of a business plan for books and writers in the digital age.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
