algorithms. Our national security clearances. Our export licenses.
Our FBI surveillance policy. Don't copy that floppy, Mr. Franklin!
And you're telling me you want us to pay *taxes* to support your
suspicious activities? Hey, if there's a real need here, the market
will meet it, Mr Franklin. I really think this "library" idea of
yours is something better left to the private sector, Mr Franklin.
No author could possibly want his books read for free, sir. Are
you trying to starve the creative artist?
Let's get real, Mr Franklin. You know what's real, Mr Franklin?
*Money* is real. You seem to be under the misapprehension that
information wants to be free and that enabling people to learn and
follow their own interests will benefit society as a whole. Well,
we no longer believe in society as a whole. We believe in the
*economy* as a whole -- a black hole! Why should you be able to
think things, and even learn things, without paying somebody for
that privilege? Let's get to brass tacks, the bottom line. Money.
Money is reality. You see this printed dollar bill? It' s far more
real than topsoil or oxygen or the ozone layer or sunlight. You
may say that this is just a piece of paper with some symbols on it,
but that's sacrilege! This is the Almighty Dollar. Most of the
dollars we worship are actually stored in cyberspace. Dollars are
just digital ones and zeros in a network of computers, but that
doesn't mean they're only virtual reality, and basically one big
fantasy. No, dollars are utterly and entirely real, far more
real than anything as vague as the public interest. If you're not
a commodity, you don't exist!
Can you believe that Melville Dewey once said, "free as air, free
as water, free as knowledge?" Free as knowledge? Let's get real,
this is the modern world -- air and water no longer come cheap!
Hey, you want breathable air, you better pay your air conditioner's
power-bill, pal. Free as water? Man, if you've got sense you buy
the bottled variety or pay for an ionic filter on your tap. And
free as knowledge? Well, we don't know what "knowledge" is, but we
can get you plenty of *data,* and as soon as we figure out how to
download it straight into student skulls we can put all the
teachers into the breadline and the librarians as well.
Ladies and gentlemen, there's a problem with showing Mr Franklin
the door. The problem is that Mr Franklin was *right* in 1731 and
Mr Franklin is *still right!*. Information is not something you
can successfully
peddle like Coca-Cola. If it were a genuine commodity, then
information would cost nothing when you had a glut of it. God knows
we've got enough data! We're drowning in data. Nevertheless we're
only gonna make more. Money just does not map the world of
information at all well. How much is the Bible worth? You can get
