Michael Nystrom, webmaster of The Daily Paul, has just announced that he is being sued for copyright violations. I’d like to discuss the issue of copyrights and anarcho-capitalism as well as our struggle for freedom and The Daily Anarchist’s role in it all.

To start, one should understand why and how this lawsuit is happening. The truth is that this type of lawsuit is not exclusively targeted towards companies with deep pockets in the attempt to make large amounts of money. In this case, blog owners are being sued despite their lack of funds in the attempt to shut sites down permanently. This should send chills through the reader’s back since this attacks the very heart of the current internet paradigm. Let me explain.

The internet is largely comprised of sites that operate in Web 2.0 such as The Daily Paul and The Daily Anarchist and literally thousands of others. Web 2.0 essentially means that the website’s content is user generated. While the webmaster such as Michael Nystrom or myself may post articles, the majority of the content posted comes in the form of blog comments, contributing author posts and forum posts from readers unconnected to the website administration. This means that constant content updates are happening at all hours of the day with only cursory moderation to filter out spam. The ability of blog owners to inspect all content for copyright violations is undeniably impossible.

Therefore, we can safely claim that all Web 2.0 blogs are vulnerable to copyright violations. The question we have to ask ourselves, then, is whether it is Web 2.0 or copyright laws that lack legitimacy. The two are incompatible with one another and will not co-exist much longer.

For individuals unfamiliar with the libertarian case against copyright laws, I would like to refer you to Stephan Kinsella’s profound argument Against Intellectual Property. This book single-handedly destroys the supposed moral and utilitarian righteousness of copyrights, trademarks and patents.

For those who already understand why copyrights are an affront to freedom, the recent acts of increased predatory litigation come as no surprise. There will always be vultures willing and able to take advantage of a corrupt system and Web 2.0 is nothing more than easy pickins for the lawyers and corporations. Michael Nystrom has stated that he has no intention of settling his lawsuit out of court and will likely be asking for legal fund donations.

This brings me to the role of The Daily Anarchist. Being an anarcho-capitalist and practitioner of civil disobedience I hereby refuse to be intimidated into removing or monitoring my website’s content for fear of violating so-called copyrighted material laws. If, at any point, I am to be sued I will also not be spending any money, my own or otherwise, on government monopolized attorneys and will pay no fines levied against me. The only punishments that can be meted out will likely be jail time or threats against my web hosting company to shut me down. In the event that The Daily Anarchist is forced to shut down I expect to have all of its files transferred to another location where its operation can continue, albeit in contradiction to the government’s law.

I fully expect to meet state aggression in the coming years and any advice you may have to help guarantee the continual operation of this website in defiance of the government would be greatly appreciated.