"...We’ll be discussing the latest and greatest happenings in the world of free culture, Creative Commons, and Free software. We’ll also be talking our future plans for the semester..."

Over the years, I've had people ask me many times, "Why do you use this program or that program? Why not use Microsoft instead like everyone else?" I simply reply, "Because I prefer to have the power to choose what program I want to use, when, where, why, and without big brother corporation X breathing down my neck telling me what I can and can't do."

Think about the differences between stories and facts. Between generating interest and pursuing knowledge. Between grabbing attention and building out what we know. Then think about the connections between the freedom to build code and the freedom to inform one's self and others. Because the former is a model for the latter.

"Like an echo from the futuristic sci-fi film Blade Runner (1982, Ridley Scott) morphed with The Matrix (1999, Andy & Larry Wachowski), the not-too-distant hereafter promises to be a stratified cybersociety; those with the preferential attributes will gain access to the many coveted self-contained metropolises, available only to those with digital savvy and informational instinct. Long gone will be the days of slaving at the job to pay for the credit card that is paying off the Lexus and the mortgage on the 6-bedroom Tudor-style custom house in Palos Verdes. If you are not on the go, you are left behind.

"The European Commission has decided that RFID tags should be turned off in products in detail stores. The proposal was submitted last week by European commissioner Vivian Reding and should guarantee privacy for citizens as well as development of new technology. A representative of the EC has citated that the proposal can be accepted before the summer if all 27 state members approve it. So far for the news. Now, my point of view is that the RFID technology brings serious privacy concerns..."

Jon Healey correctly points out that the debate over intellectual-property theft is complex because we are often dealing with "non-real properties." These properties cost nearly nothing to produce, and an infinite number of people can use the same property at the same time. And yet, we still want to treat them as if they were "real" property.

The open source movement, which is responsible for some of the most important innovations in IT such as the world wide web, Linux and Apache, neither pays fat bonuses nor offers flashy facilities. It does, however, provide much by the way of intangible benefits.

"Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather [...] In the United States, you have today created a law, the Telecommunications Reform Act, which repudiates your own Constitution and insults the dreams of Jefferson, Washington, Mill, Madison, DeToqueville, and Brandeis. These dreams must now be born anew in us. [...] In China, Germany, France, Russia, Singapore, Italy and the United States, you are trying to ward off the virus of liberty by erecting guard posts at the frontiers of Cyberspace.