The Worn-Out Unwelcomeness of Advertisement - 989 Words

• I don't understand the logic of this paper, possibly because I don't play computer games, and wouldn't buy ones implemented in proprietary software that only runs on proprietary operating systems even if I did. But the point about software freedom, as I keep pointing out, is that it makes all user-entrapment social strategies either obsolete or doomed. Software-delivered advertising is simply one of those strategies. Already those of us who want nothing to do with advertising on the web use AdBlock for Firefox, or a privacy-enhancement adblocking proxy like Privoxy, and except for people trapped by ignorance into using Internet Explorer or Safari (which of course provide no relief from advertising), web advertisements of all sorts, including not just popups but banners, inserted graphics, and even sponsored links on search pages are things unseen. Similarly, the power of games manufacturers to sell in-game advertising is no benefit to the user, and as free games replace proprietary games, advertising in this market too will go extinct. The ownership of culture includes, of course, the ownership exercised by advertisers, and it--like all other forms of cultural ownership--will have been outcompeted by free within one generation. So are you writing to say that free software isn't going to win? On what basis?