Copy Protection Personal Notes6/5/2000; 7:13:57 AM Random thoughts: Remember copy-protection on software? Will Gnutella and the like, making "piracy" a matter of opening a program and typing in the name of the desired software, rather then a 30-60 minute hunt on the web for a working FTP site, bring back the days of black print on dark wine red paper?

Of course, such a low tech solution now-a-days would be of little use. Copy protection stopped because it ceased to be worth annoying the consumer; it might start being worth it again in the near future for commercial companies.

In some sense, that's an advantage for free software like Linux; Linux has already adjusted to an economy where nobody pays for software. You can't pirate Linux.

Software may have proven that it can survive without direct payments, but can art? I don't know.