Z:gnu-www-ja-copyright-and-globalization--2f64e3-But I think I detect another t/en

But I think I detect another theme that lies beneath what Stallman has been saying and that isn't really directly about computers at all, but more broadly about questions of democratic authority and the power that government and corporations increasingly exercise over our lives. This populist and anti-corporate side to Stallman's discourse is nourishing but also reductive, potentially simplifying. And it is also perhaps overly idealistic. For example, how would a novelist or a poet or a songwriter or a musician or the author of an academic textbook survive in this brave new world where people are encouraged but not required to pay authors. In other words, it seems to me, the gap between existing practice and the visionary possibilities Stallman speculates about is still immensely wide.