Slashdot | Europe To Adopt Strict Internet Copyright Law
George at Orwellian.Org
George at Orwellian.Org
Wed Apr 11 09:42:59 PDT 2001
( Yes, the WSJ title actually says "…" ;-)
Yea Intel! Fuck Jeff Gordon! (oh, wrong article)
http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB986949574599148237.htm
#
# April 11, 2001
#
# An Anticopyright Activist Gets Funding For a Start-Up That Makes
# … Software
#
# By LEE GOMES Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
#
# An Irish computer programmer known for crusading against copyright
# and other "intellectual property" laws has received $4 million
# from Intel Corp. and others to start a for-profit, proprietary
# company based on his software.
#
# Ian Clark, the 24-year-old author of a software program called
# FreeNet, is also a co-founder of Uprizer Inc., a Los Angeles
# start-up that Wednesday is scheduled to announce the investment
# from Intel and two venture-capital firms.
#
# Mr. Clark is something of a hero, as well as a frequent speaker
# and panelist, in the small segment of the computer world that
# holds little respect for copyright or similar intellectual-pr
# operty laws. In interviews, Mr. Clark has said that one day
# copyright laws will be regarded the way society now regards
# witch-burning.
#
# His FreeNet program is a file-transfer program that is similar
# to Napster, Gnutella and other file-sharing systems. Like
# Gnutella, FreeNet is completely decentralized and operates without
# the need for a central server controlling its operations. But
# FreeNet (freenet.sourceforge.net/)goes an extra step in that
# the files that are passed around with FreeNet are encrypted,
# or scrambled, in a way that makes it impossible for outsiders
# to see what is being passed around on the network.
#
# While FreeNet has received extensive publicity in the past year,
# partly because of the interest in Napster, it has far fewer actual
# users than does software based on Gnutella or Napster. FreeNet
# users have complained that the software is an inefficient system,
# in part because of the large amount of computer resources expended
# in keeping data encrypted and private.
#
# Mr. Clark's company, Uprizer, will be creating software based
# on FreeNet. But despite his somewhat novel ideas about copyright
# laws, Uprizer will be selling traditional proprietary software.
#
# Uprizer said Mr. Clark wasn't available to discuss Uprizer. But
# Rob Kramer, the Uprizer co-founder who will be its chief
# executive, maintained that Uprizer and FreeNet aren't related
# to each other. "Ian is a very smart person who has other goals
# in his life, and Uprizer is one of them," Mr. Kramer said.
#
# Mr. Kramer said Uprizer will be selling software that will allow
# computer users, such as people inside companies, to exchange
# information and files with each other. Mr. Kramer said Uprizer
# will be using technology built into FreeNet that automatically
# brings files close to the groups of people wanting them. He said,
# though, that Uprizer's product won't have the anonymity and
# encryption that is built into FreeNet.
#
# Uprizer is another company in what is being called "peer-to-peer"
# computing, a catch-all phrase that is used to describe a number
# of different ways that computers are being linked to perform
# common tasks.
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