Information Wants to Be Free

  • 05/06/05
Our columnist, Terry Calhoun recalls that the origin of the phrase, "Information wants to be free," is with Stewart Brand, creator of The Whole Earth Catalog. He coined it in 1984 at the first Hackers’ Conference, back in an innocent era when hackers meant programmers. Brand said: "On the one hand information wants to be expensive, because it's so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting against each other." Read Calhoun's column.

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