I loved this interview with Eben Moglen of the Software Freedom Law Center. Most people don't realize just how profoundly involved Eben is in all things free and open source. Whether it's the opening up of Microsoft protocols for Samba or representing the Linux community against pillaging from proprietary companies, Eben is there.
Despite being branded a bit of a communist, Eben is actually a true capitalist (a "copyleft capitalist" as he calls it). He understands, as the proprietary world is beginning to understand, that business depends on a commons, and not necessarily on locking up every shred of saleable value:
...[Y]ou're saying that open source is basically changing the attitudes of traditional companies?
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The Computer and Communications Industry Association--a Washington D.C.-based think tank and lobbying group--has issued a report [PDF] that dispels some common mythology around the value of intellectual property to the U.S. economy. CCIA found that "fair use" exceptions to copyright created $4.5 trillion in annual revenue for the U.S. economy.
That's a big number, but it's not surprising. Just think of how difficult it would be to innovate if anyone (including Microsoft et al., which are members of CCIA) relied on a strict view of copyright.
From InformationWeek's report of the study:
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