It is easy to tell if a person, a group, a company, a nation is oriented toward Sharism or not. For those who are not, what they defend as "cultural goods" and "intellectual property" are just excuses for the status quo of keeping a community closed. Much of their "culture" will be protected, but the net result is the direct loss of many other precious ideas, and the subsequent loss of all the potential gains of sharing. This lost knowledge is a black hole in our life, which may start to swallow other values as well.

The quote is from chinese blogger/capitalist Isaac Mao (???), in an article called Sharism: A Mind Revolution. The article can also be found in the book Free Souls.

...what, you're still here? The quote should be enough to wet your appetite, so skip the rest and head right on over there to read it! It's well worth the click. Extremely interesting. I found a lot of my own thoughts put into words throughout the text. I have to add another quote, it's just that good:

Furthermore, by realizing all the immediate and emergent rewards that can be had by sharing, you may eventually find that copyright and "All Rights Reserved" are far from your mind. You will enjoy sharing too much to worry about who is keeping a copy. The new economic formula is, the more people remix your works, the higher the return.

I love his matter-of-fact rhetoric, how he stacks his opinions to prove his thesis. Very much like a pre-post-modern philosopher. I feel I am a bit biased here - his rhetoric will probably annoy you if you don't agree with the thesis :-P

We are Networked Neurons connected by the synapses of Social Software.

I'm in love. Have to get the book. Now.