Today, though, abstract symbolic manipulation is the foundation of the world's most dynamic industry. Both sides of this debate could use Unisys as an example. On the one hand, the company has been exceedingly modest about asserting its rights. On the other hand, it waited a decade to let programmers know the patent existed, forcing them to negotiate terms for products already on the market. Unisys's relative restraint afterward makes no difference, patent-haters argue.
Information also wants to be expensive.
It wants to be expensive because it can be immeasurably valuable to the recipient. The battle over the control of information, Brand thought, will only get worse. Because of the growing importance of the Net to political expression, the battle will have important long-range implications for democracy. Gathering on the steps of Unisys, the small band of protesters marking up floppy disks are, improbably enough, the scouts in a technopolitical struggle about which everyone will soon be hearing much more. More on Technology and Digital Culture in Atlantic Unbound and The Atlantic Monthly.