The flip side is that only the most oppressive and restrictive of software and networks can undo the tremendous free speech that electronic publishing and the internet naturally provide. Windows, OSX and many flavors of Android are repressive enough to kill free speech, as is a network built to enforce DMCA and ACTA. US companies have built a centralized network in China that goes a long way towards eliminating free speech. They would like to convert the internet we know into such a network. This is a difficult and insane task but publishers are arrogant enough to try.

Only network and software freedom can prevent this kind of abuse.

Net neutrality and DMCA abuse both go under “network”?

Part of the censorship problem is a reliance on other people’s servers, aka the cloud. In the US this is a result of poor network quality and pressure on ISPs to block services. Google blocks movies and books when forced by publishers. Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo once censored the Truthout newslist and most refused to back down. Only network and software freedom can prevent this kind of abuse.

The goal is more than the “protection” of “content” it is the exclusion of competition and a continuation of a control structure created by the mechanical presses and broadcast of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Software and network freedom threaten this control.