Stephen Fry’s online popularity has taken another boost this week as he burst through the 100,000 follower barrier on Twitter – he’s now second only to Barack Obama (currently on 232,091). I’m the “vice president of Twitter” he joked at a talk at the Apple Store on Regent Street in London.
Benny Har-Even from IT Pro was at the packed Apple event and heard Stephen Fry’s views on copyright and net neutrality, a key theme in the Digital Britain Interim Report released last week.
Fry was also asked his thoughts on the Creative Commons group, devoted to lifting the shackles of copyrights. Fry admitted that he was very much in favour. ”I’m not excited about my copyrights. If someone stole large wodges of my works I’m sure my publishers would get very upset, but I’d say, ‘Golly, that’s a pity’. I’m in an overpaid profession so if some of it leaks away, then tough.”
He also gave strong views on the issue of net neutrality, stating that while the internet has its hazards we should be very careful about placing restrictions on it. “The internet is like a city – it has red light districts, all kinds of weird people, who want to con and steal from you, but my god, they’re exciting places to live and to be a citizen of it is a great privilege. Yet people are trying to control the internet like they would never dare with a city.”
Well, we’re with Stephen on this one. It’s a debate that’s set to run and run, but our view on net neutrality is generally that people should be free to do more on the internet, not less – after all, that’s the main reason why it’s so popular.
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