Apple (et alia) !!

[Richmond]

On 02/02/2013 03:04 PM, Francis Nugent Dixon wrote:
> Hi from Beautiful Brittany,
>
> Phase 1 - Your data isn't in your computer. It's somewhere !
> And to get to it, you need to pay, on a rental basis !
>
> Phase 2 - The application necessary to access your data
> isn't yours any more - It isn't in your computer. You have to
> pay to use it, to get to your data, on a rental basis !
>
> Phase 3 - Your computer is no longer your computer. You
> can't use it unless "they" say so, and you have no say upon
> what you execute on "no longer your" computer, or else
> must pay for the authorization to use it, on a rental basis.
>
> Phase 4 - You no longer have free access to information (like
> g**gling). You will pay for it on a point system, and the more
> you want to know, the more you will pay. I bet you will say
> "it's worth a few dollars for what you get", and G**gle will
> be laughing, all the way to the bank !

Until comparatively recently that was the situation: if you owned an 
encyclopedia or
lived in a place rich enough to have a library with an encyclopedia 
(meaning you
paid taxes to fund that library), you had access to information which 
the had-nots
did not.

It is only recently we have had easier and cheaper access to information 
with the advent of
the internet and publically available repositories of information.

The really BAD thing is that the vast majority of people seem to take 
this access to information
as a given and don't seem to be aware of just how easily it could be 
removed again.

As an anti-Socialist, I see the internet and open source software as the 
best way to say "Power to the People"
without all the Communist claptrap. But as a sort of capitalist I am 
aware that nothing is truly free, and
that as well as having to work for something, one also has to carry on 
working to retain possession of it.

>
> And with so much profit, aforementioned companies will buy
> into many other walks of life, such as food, transport, health …
> and then my friends, you are in deep "s**t".

That is seriously scary, and I have the feeling that to a very large 
extent the current
status quo is exactly that.

>
> A Japanese company is already selling cans of fresh air.
>
> You are already being screwed, but this is just the beginning !
>
> Welcome to the 21st Century.
>
> -Francis
> _______________________________________________
>