Techdirt points to a story in the Toronto Star about three Canadian hackers who have created a software work-around for China's "great firewall." The subtle irony is that the hackers' solution, called Psiphon, is inherently cooperative: "Psiphon takes the concept of a third-party computer doing the work yours can't because of censorship, and protects it by relying on trusted friends and close family, to create a program the creators say is nearly fail-safe." One has to love the idea of the failure of the enforced, monolithic collective inspiring genuine, entrepreneurial cooperation. The fact, as Techdirt points out, that three hackers are able to out-perform a cast of 30,000 censors also suggests another truth: that freedom is always cheaper and more efficient than opression.
Cross posted on Samizdata.
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