I don't think IP currently deserves a place in history alongside
totalitarianism and terrorism. I think it will soon.
As for overthrow of legitimate governments: I am given to understand
that some South American countries have been pressured into setting up
special 'expedited' court systems to handle IP claims brought against
citizens by US corporations. I should find out if this is just a rumor
before talking about it, I suppose.
I expect that governments will be overthrown in the near future and
replaced by puppet regimes in order to defend IP -- and possibly not by
private armies, but by national armies. (The US's foreign policy
throughout this century has mostly consisted of attacking countries
that posed an economic threat to its major industries. Is that likely
to change?)
As for sweatshops: billions of people will end up working in sweatshops
because IP laws make educating them expensive and make innovation (and
therefore jobs involving innovation) the province of the wealthy few.
As for 'easier to remediate': feudalism and totalitarianism are just as
easy to remediate if you have a government that wants to remediate
them. You're probably right about pseudo-religion and terrorism, though.
-- <kragen@pobox.com> Kragen Sitaker <http://www.pobox.com/~kragen/> Tue Aug 24 1999 76 days until the Internet stock bubble bursts on Monday, 1999-11-08. <URL:http://www.pobox.com/~kragen/bubble.html>