Digital choice the copyright way

Found on a comment list http://dlvr.it/

"See, by only providing content through locked down, time limited, location restricted methods, the studios are actually giving us a lot more choices in how we consume our content.

Dirty pirates can only consume their content in one way: no encryption, HD, and worldwide. But the studios give us an unending stream of different choices that provide real value to their content. Maybe you want DRM that requires a constant connection to the internet. They have that. Maybe you want content that's purposefully degraded. They have that. Maybe you want to be able to watch content only in the US. They have that. Canada? They have that too.

Content that expires after 48 hours? No problem. Maybe you want to have to watch it in the theater? They got you covered. The depth and breadth of choices that the studios provide is something that the evil pirates just cannot cover. The other day I asked someone at the pirate bay for an encrypted copy of The Grey that would only play on my computer for a week and they couldn't do it!"

But why Diggers?I

History is a mirror for the present. In it's silent reflection we can learn lessons and see parallels in the world we live in today.

In England in the middle of the 17th century parliament had just fought a bloody war freeing the people from monarchy and rule by divine right. But as in a prequel to Orwell's Animal Farm. for the common man it was soon clear that nothing much had changed. The rich and noble still held sway, and enclosure of common land into private ownership was rife, a triumph of vested interest over common good.

It's against this background that Gerard Winstanley and the Diggers took over an area of common land to farm collectively. Winstanley wrote pamphlets arguing on moral and religious grounds against the exploitation of the poor and preached a new Commonwealth where the commons would 'be a treasury for all'

They're sometimes described as the first communists but today you can see them in a different light. Then as now

they are the 99%. Then as now they stood up against greed and the exploitation and monopolization of the commons.

Over the centuries people have always struggled against the inequality of power and money - the Diggers are just one chapter in that story. But as relevant today as it was in 1649.