“Abbot J. Liebling once said, “Freedom of the press is limited
to those who own one.” With the merger of media conglomerate Time
Warner and Internet provider America Online, these sage words
should be re-examined.”
“What does all this mean for Linux? Linux could not have
happened without the cheap communication and distribution
possibilities provided by the Internet. Even with a prodigal
programmer such as Linus Torvalds, Linux would be a play-toy
without the hundreds of other kernel programmers pushing
development onward….”
“One way to short circuit the open source process is
software patents; another is to control the information pipes of
the Internet. Owning the infrastructure is like controlling the
high ground of a battle field. Holding it doesn’t guarantee
victory, but it sure goes a long way. AOL is also the current
“owner” of Netscape and by default Mozilla. Thanks to the deities
that Mozilla is Open Source. I dare not imagine how much worse I’d
be viewing all of these developments if we didn’t have
Mozilla.”