WiseWebDude - 4:18 pm on Sep 26, 2007 (gmt 0)

Something disturbs me as I read this thread. The fact that this is happening at such a high rate is not good. The same goes for artists that have their stuff stolen and downloaded by every bonehead in the world for free applies here. Fact is, it cannot keep up like this and something will, inevitably, give and give hard. There is going to have to be some type of cyber-cop that patrols the net in the end or the internet will, surely, self-destruct. There are far too many people coming on every day that are much too willing to take what has been produced by brilliant minds and use it as their own, and there is NO honor, whatsoever, on the net. The internet IS great as an open place...but, we (who have common sense) had better find some way to regulate the net in some way or it will be done by the Government, OR the net will implode due to all of this. Why should this man rack his mind to produce his own encyclopedia only for some crack-smoking moron to come along, copy and paste it in Wikipedia depriving him of credit and his monetary rights?

I have not the answer to this dilemma, but I suggest we all at least take this seriously and THINK about it. It sure is easy to tell someone, "oh well, you're screwed," until we are ALL screwed! OK, I am on a rant here, but this problem has been bugging me for quite some time. I have a bad feeling about all of this. I think people will just give up trying to do extraordinary things when some idiot can just take it from him without a word said. Is the internet going to dumb down society to the point where we are all drooling drones and without any empathy at all? Why care if it doesn't matter what you do? If Google takes Matt's work and dumps it for their buddy's pages at Wikipedia then why will others try to do better? Look, the fact is this problem is only going to exacerbate in the years ahead to a breaking point. What do you think should happen? Will the Government step in and patrol the net with cyber-cops? Can the internet self-regulate, somehow? What IS the answer?

[edited by: WiseWebDude at 4:31 pm (utc) on Sep. 26, 2007]