- Global Voices - https://globalvoices.org -

Parallels Between Religious and Copyright Wars

Categories: Eastern & Central Europe, North America, Western Europe, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, U.S.A., United Kingdom, Arts & Culture, Citizen Media, Digital Activism, Economics & Business, Education, Freedom of Speech, History, Human Rights, Ideas, Politics, Religion, War & Conflict

Rick Falkvinge [1], the founder of Pirate Party, reinterprets [2] the wars of religion that devastated Western Europe in the XVI and XVII centuries [3] in terms of the current struggle to control information through overbearing legislation related to copyright and freedom of expression:

The religious wars were never about religion as such. They were about who held the power of interpretation, about who controlled the knowledge and culture available to the masses. It was a war of gatekeepers of information.