A Plea to Bill Gates: Free the Ideas!

“But don’t you worry about Bill Gates getting control of all your personal data and taking control of the entire Net?” I’ve been doing radio interviews in support of my Upcoming Book, and that’s what the interviewer wanted to know after I said something optimistic about the Internet.

Damn straight I worry about Gates. Microsoft wants to own not just the desktops but the connections. They’d even like to own our identities. (See Doc on the topic.) They are clever enough to get away with it if we’re not vigilant. But Microsoft is still constrained by some market forces. Yes, Microsoft twisted the market’s Invisible Hand until all it could do was salute smartly in the direction of Redmond. But the market is still capable of containing Microsoft’s hegemony. Just barely. Maybe.

I am far more worried about the entertainment-legislative complex. Because the market has emphatically rejected its business model, it’s perilously close to rewriting the software and hardware rules to force the market to comply. The government is both venal and stupid enough to do it.

Too bad Microsoft, dreaming of being an entertainment company and getting to invite Jeff Katzenberg over for some barbecue, is siding with the IP anal-compulsives. Microsoft lusts after getting a micro-slice of every entertainment bit that passes on to one of “their” desktops. But you know what? They may make the Windows I run on my machine, but it’s my desktop.

So, here’s my plea to Bill Gates: Be the white knight. Swing your mighty sword in favor of building the most vibrant marketplace for ideas and creativity the earth has ever seen. Storm the halls of Congress. Make it your personal compaign, Bill. You’ll help grow your market so radically that you won’t need to own it all to be the richest man on the planet. And you’ll also be one of the most loved. We all applaud the Gates Foundation, but this is your real chance to change history. Become the digital millennium’s Medici, not its Savonarola.

Besides, wouldn’t you rather barbecue with Courtney Love than Jeffrey Katzenberg?

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