Observe the Species Stupidus Libertarianus

Over at TechCrunch, Duncan Riley concludes that the fact that someone photographed each page of the latest Harry Potter novel and posted it to BitTorrent somehow signals the end of analog media as we know it.

Whilst the validity of the hype surrounding Harry Potter may be subject to debate, what the leaking of the book does demonstrate is that the days of the mainstream media and publishers strictly controlling the dissemination of information has well and truly past; simply where there is a fan with a will, there is a way.

If that isn’t enough, the unintentional hilarity of this comment made my day.

Wilco

July 17th, 2007 at 7:22 am

Because something’s not legal doesn’t make it wrong. We live in a new age where ideas, information and media are free. If you like it or not is beside the point. Personally I feel it’s morally wrong to charge money for something that can be coppied (sic) into infinity. And yes, that can’t be done with books and cd’s and dvd’s (Huh?). But it can with it’s content.

There’s nothing sacret (sic) about law. They come and go, and it’s about time a few of them leave because quite clearly they weren’t ment to cover content that can be coppied to infinity and back.