Today I realized that the death of shareware is a reflection of the death of the 1st Amendment and the absorption of power to control all software on machines, and thus the control of populaces. Hardly a jarring realization, had I been paying attention. But, I hadn't. The rise of Apple and its iPhone, which today banned ICE trackers from its online store, has now brought with it the death of individual freedoms--an inevitable result of allowing the concentration of corporate power to the point of monopoly or oligopoly. (Note, that given there are two separate channels, Apple/Android--but each channel is exclusive in terms of the software platform and thus software, . The inability for people sitting at home alone, or with a few friends or collaborators, to create and distribute broadly uncensored programs as shareware or freeware without the intercession of a capitalist monopoly (which controls with plenary power) distribution of software to broad swaths of society. The advent of n...
