This essay is a weird conflation of two issues: copyright and government censorship. Yes, I suppose they're both "enemies" of the free flow of information, but I think it's an unfair comparison.<p>There's nothing special about the Internet from the perspective of copyright. I don't really understand why so many people have such a problem with the concept of copyright, but it seems especially acute with regard to the web crowd. I suspect it's because the ease with which copyright can be violated online makes people feel that it can hardly be doing any damage, so what's the big deal. The ironic thing is that people on HN cry bloody murder when someone rips off a webpage design or posts blogspam instead of linking to the original source. Please explain how this is different?