One of the most important factors in changing laws and confronting oppressive forces is to create strong popular awareness and support for those opposing them. Among other things, this makes them far more risky and formidible as targets of opportunity for oppressors.
In this sense I hope very much that the cyberrights movement is maturing to recognise that technical means of fighting such oppression are, whilst necessary, not sufficient. EFF are showing an increased awareness of this (and to be fair, have been aware of this for a long time).
The explicit recognition of Alexandra Elbakyan, a personal hero to me, is not only richly deserved by a functionally useful step in fighting copyright overreach and publishing monopolies.
I think history will remember Alexandra Elbakyan as one of the most important figures of this century. She's very low-profile, but the work she's doing is of fundamental importance to humanity. Locking (usually publicly-funded) scientific knowledge behind obscenely-expensive paywalls is repugnant and should be criminal.
In this sense I hope very much that the cyberrights movement is maturing to recognise that technical means of fighting such oppression are, whilst necessary, not sufficient. EFF are showing an increased awareness of this (and to be fair, have been aware of this for a long time).
The explicit recognition of Alexandra Elbakyan, a personal hero to me, is not only richly deserved by a functionally useful step in fighting copyright overreach and publishing monopolies.