With an increasingly authoritarian, downright oppressive and corrupt government, the historical reaction has traditionally been to turn cynical eyes upon all laws and ‘property’ which the downtrodden (that’s just about everybody in a dictatorship, of course) sees as mere tools of the ruling class to keep everybody else under their boots. The RIAA is already seen in this light by the very people who most (used to) buy music; MPAA and the TV cartel are rapidly being seen in the same light.

The only reason publishers (of course, the majors are all part of the same corporate incest-fest) are not generally thought of in this same light is because most Americans don’t read books in the first place. But I do wonder how long it will be before college textbooks are routinely ‘ripped’ in the first week of any semester and published anonymously via P2P sites along with movies, TV shows, and music.

===

The ebook angle to the STB wiki is rather more interesting to me. How does one publish timely information these days? Not just tips on freeloading and theft, but on maintaining computers, growing tomatoes, etc? Blogs and websites are great of course if one is online. But wikis that you could download every so often and load up on your Sony Reader or iLiad seem to be the way to go here. Much better than a p-book that is out of date by the first day of publication, and fills up landfills and recycling bins when the Second Edition comes out (likewise out of date on day 1 of course).

I found the language very 1960s contemporary (talk about ‘pigs’ etc.) Some information possibly useful to homeless people (where are the soup kitchens). Certainly that information should be free although how many people who need soup kitchens can log onto the Internet to find one?

I remember the excitement this book created way back when. It’s interesting to realize that there are still those who appear to believe that a sustainable economy can be built on theft.

Rob Preece
Publisher, http://www.BooksForABuck.com