Hackertopia and Piracy, Inc.

The elite capitalist class has undergone numerous makeovers in the past century. From the Organization Man of the 50s, to the Yuppies of the 80s, to the Bobos of the dot-com era. A combination of structural changes and cultural pendulum swings have produced these makeovers.

For instance, as those who were immersed in the counterculture of the 70s made their way into the corporate ranks, they brought with them many of the anti-establishment values, and became the bourgeois bohemians, or Bobos, as David Brooks calls them. People like Richard Branson or Steve Jobs.

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Posted by Nato Welch  on  03/26  at  03:34 AM

I thought the point of "regulatory capture" was to have a //captive// government. You know, one that legislates to tilt the playing field in your favor, and absorbs your losses for you, so you can focus on profits. One cannot extract value from victims when there are no victims.

Furthermore, how does one "steal" innovations that are being given away? The value of IP-based business models isn't in the access you get to works (although business has started discovering the problems with licensing deadlock), it's in obstructing the use of intellectual property by people //anywhere//, not just those who follow them out to sea.

Posted by EmbraceUnity  on  03/26  at  01:36 PM

True, regulatory capture and other corporatist policies are only possible through a government structure. Yet, there are plenty of industries in which the corporations have a hard time getting their way in government. It wouldn't be a huge stretch to imagine tobacco companies desiring to move out to sea to escape heavy tax burdens.

Copyleft innovations can certainly be stolen. Anyone who closes the source code and their derivative modifications is in breach of the license.

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