One of the biggest battles on the Internet is over copyright. The fight is over intellectual property and who should get paid.

Comic: An important message from the global entertainment industry.
Cartoon about free culture, intellectual property
and Internet Piracy. Found on The Pirate Bay
in late February / early March ’09.

With the advent of the Internet we have a more open society that wants to share everything from what band is currently their must have soundtrack for life, what they are reading and how it is affecting their thoughts, to that awesome episode of the show of the hour that left them speechless. The dirty truth is, most would like to just drop a file to their friends and say, “Hey, you gotta check this out!” To blazes with those who want to be paid for it.

But is this really as scary of an idea? One author doesn’t think so, Cory Doctorow. He gives his works away for, gasp, free. What is amazing about this idea, he is still making money off his books. How does this happen? Well, it appears that people who really like what he is doing are willing to drop him some hard cash even after reading it for free.

Open Content is the way of the future, if companies want to remain Neanderthals, that is up to them. But think about it. If everything were to be copyrighted, where would intellectual creativity be?

Image Credits: BaedonWebZine, Wikimedia Commons

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