Hello, everyone. My name's Tom (Knapp). I'm the publisher of Rational Review News Digest, blog as KN@PPSTER, etc.
Welcome… I guess this kerfuffle did, indeed get us some publicity. 
Oh, I've known about, and enjoyed, FreeKeene for some time, I'm just not much of a "forum posting" kind of guy.
I visit FTL every day to blurb/link the latest episode at RRND, and one good … or not good, but certainly effective … way to get my undivided attention is to call L. Neil Smith "not so libertarian." :o
Welcome, Tom! 8)
heh… He's about as libertarian as they get… and I love his work. He just shares the same flaw a lot of content producers do:
The inability to look at IP analytically, due to an emotional investment in their product.
There are some very successful Anti-IP content producers out there, but the vast majority remain very pro-IP.
Tell me about it. I've been going back and forth on this with Schulman for awhile now. I'm still conflicted on IP as a concept, but the bottom line is that it's increasingly difficult to enforce IP claims, and the older guys are getting pretty goddamn crotchety about the fact that a) the business model they're used to no longer works, and b) youngsters no longer accept the claims the business model is based on as valid.
Schulman got ALL bent out of shape when I pointed out that:
1) The book he gives away freely in electronic format also outsells his other works in dead tree format on Amazon; and
2) Corey Doctorow's books, all of which are given away freely in electronic format, almost all outsell all of Schulman's on paper.
I love these guys, but there's a certain fist-shaking "get off my lawn, you dang whippersnappers!" air about the whole thing.
Well, that settles it. I'm going to write an article and submit it to TLE.Hopefully I'll get it done and in by the deadline. I don't expect to convince Neil, But it will at least offer a counterpoint to his "Get off my Lawn!" post.
Hey Tom. Glad to see you posting here.
I really like what you've written so far.
-Lance