The Spice must flow

The book Dune by Frank Herbert features a key resource, in the form of the mind altering drug Spice. The importance of the narcotic is revealed via the mantra "The spice is life, the Spice must flow."

In the internet age, the "spice" is information. As I stated earlier, there has always been bad blood between the internet community and copyright holders, there was a time when I feared that a war would break out between the RIAA, the MPAA, and the internet community.

Of course, the great cyberwar never quite happened. Looking back, there are many reasons why it never did.

First; The internet community relies on the copyright community. Total piracy would result in the loss of media. No new full length movies, no new major music projects, no new video games, no new applications. Even now the internet strives to replace many of these features, but it cannot fully compete against the software firms, interests, and resources.

Secondly, many members on the net strive to become members of the media itself. There's money in them thar projects. The kids posting their homemade movies and songs hope to someday strike it rich. The people who write free code like to think that they can prove thier talents and someday earn a job at Microsoft, macintosh, or thier favorite video game developer. Some of those who write blogs dream of someday using their writing capability to gain a paying position as a professional writer. Those dreams could be easily dashed if the individual user attains a reputation for "Unethical or Illegal behaviour". There isn't a recording label out there that will sign on an artist who illegally downloads his source materials, or samples.

Finally, the MPAA, RIAA, and other copyright companies have managed to attack the hackers and pirates in mostly a passive manner. Propaganda made by the copyright community is remixed into online parodies. The passive software that the copyright holders use, becomes a hacking game to the very hackers that the media owners are targeting. Just another peice of software to hack, another code to crack. A fascinating challenge. Can you crack the software on your Ipod? Can you get this ripped video or song to play? What fun would it be if the information was easy to obtain? The media rights holders provide a perfect opportunity for the hackers to prove their skills. Its a game of oneupmanship. The hackers are entertained, the pirates feel the rush of bypassing the security systems in place, and the data flows at a reduced rate, with an alternative path for those who don't have the skill to bypass the security measures. "Can't hack? Tough, buy the media like all the other suckers. I got mad skillz, I get my stuff for free."

In the end, regardless of whether one buys the media, or hacks it, the information flows. That is the point of internet. The transference and flow of information.

The cyber war between anonymous and COS was originally started over this flow. COS had information, the internet wanted it. A video was leaked, the internet gobbled it up, COS attempted to reign in and destroy the free information. A war ensued. The internet community smelled blood, in the form of information that the Church did not want released, that the church wished to control. And the internet moved.

Of course, this is merely a simple observation of the importance of information on the internet. with information being the critical online resource, information itself plays a key part in the ongoing cyber conflict, in the very day to day operation of the internet itself. I will definitely revisit this topic in future.