Jaron Lanier is a thoughtful person, but as someone who has been reading his stuff for over 20 years, I would say he doesn’t think deeply enough, and is often wrong. He has been deeply wrong about VR, and several other online-related issues. It isn’t that the points he makes are incorrect, he just doesn’t offer (or remember?) the entire context that he’s really discussing.
Still, this isn’t the place or format for a discussion of issues I have with Lanier’s writing …
The article is vague about how “IP is a crucial thread in designing a humane future with dignity”. I’d like to interpret this like “As long as there’s IP there can not be humane future with dignity”.
“Intellectual Property” as it’s used these days emphasizes on ownership. It no longer about the property/trait/talent of a person. It only helps to make the big corporations bigger. Sooo… hone and protect your personal “Intellectual Capability” and not the property created by that.
"I would like to see more systems where ordinary people can get paid when they contribute value to digital networks; systems that improve their lives and expand the overall economy."Yes! -- The hard part is to judge the value. One man's meat is another man's poison.
Anyhow. “solid, utilitarian plugins” on Linux are rare. There is a lot excellent DSP coming from the research side (think CCRMA, FAUST), but most of it lacks the the utilitarian GUI for day to day studio or stage use. A well designed GUI requires a lot of work, in most cases even more than the DSP part.
http://moddevices.com/ does an great job. The plugins and GUIs are in progress to become available outside the MOD (already possible, but not yet in a releasable state). You may like the GUI for the tap-plugins.