“Every now and then, I meet somebody with a particular take on
the concept of free software — call it the conspiracy theory
perspective. It goes like this:”
“Free software is a great idea, but it’s too radical for The
Man. If it ever starts to catch on, the Powers That Be will buy it
out. They’ll make it illegal. They’ll do whatever it takes to kill
it.”
“I’m not a big fan of conspiracy theories. Delusions of
persecution are the easy way out; they give us something simple to
blame in a complicated world. Spinning theories is easy, hacking
reality is hard. But we all have to make sense out of the noise
somehow, I guess.”
“Anyway, free software has caught on. What’s The Man gonna do
about it?”
“In all rationality, I think we should worry. The current
assaults by the recording and movie industries against MP3 and
DeCSS are just the tip of the iceberg; there are bad times ahead
for the Open Source community, and for cyberliberties in
general.“