< It would be nice to live in a world of free access to information, universal compassion, freedom from power hierarchies, and everything that he stood for. It's just not very practical, when content creators need to eat and people have differing desires that are often at odds and reality needs to choose between multiple competing desires.

What? The activism was directed at giving free access to that should be free! The research that is being hoarded behind paywalls by gatekeepers who didn't create it and don't pay the ones who created it. The creators of the text are people paid by us through our taxes and other contributions and then locked away so only a select few can see it. This knowledge locked away that could save lives, be new areas of business or just simply improve the human condition.

And here you are and talking about this like he was trying to distribute movies for free.

Thanks for sharing the ribbonfarm blog. I found the essay on clods and snowflakes quite interesting.