[F.U.C.K. is an e-zine that I started on January 24, 1993 and ended on January 24, 2000. One concept is that articles should be timeless if possible, so they were not released with dates. As such, the date on this blog is not exact but I will try to use a date as close as possible.]
In this day and age, there is more and more talk about who owns information and how freely it should flow. It is currently impossible to place a monetary value on information, or establish precedents on who should own what
information due to a lack of court cases involving it. Not that American courts are the ones that have a right to assess the value of information.
More in the computer world than in the ‘real’ world, you will find arguments about who should have access to information. Along with who should have it, other aspects come up such as how free it should be, what it takes to get it, and what price you should have to pay for it.
In the past I have always been one to think any and all information should be free to everyone else. Recently I have changed my view on this mostly due to other people wanting information from me. I don’t claim to be an information storehouse or anything, but here and there people want information on various subjects, and turn to me. Typically this is on BBS’s and I reply with the answer they need within a day or so. I have never had a complaint about this until a week or so ago. My stance on information freedom has changed from ‘anyone, anytime’ to ‘if you deserve it’.
During a conversation a few weeks back, I was told that waiting more than two days for a piece of information was way too long. He stated that it should only take one day, and no more. To keep things clear, this was being said about hacking knowledge. He believed that he should be able to get a response to his inquiries regarding hacking within one day, and that not getting it within that one day was unacceptable.
If that is the mindset people are starting to take, then the world of information is going downhill. Patience is a virtue, I know that has been drilled in your head by other people in the past. That being said, consider the current state of knowledge. If someone asks another person a question that demands a somewhat technical answer, that only a few people have, then that is a pretty valuable piece of information. The fact that it came to you somewhat quickly and without a price is a blessing.
If you want information, and you want it quickly, do something to earn it. Just sitting on your ass and offering nothing back to the person helping you is your way of saying that you don’t deserve the information. If mailing someone and waiting for a few days for the response is too long to wait, or too much of a hassle, then you aren’t even CLOSE to deserving the information.
More and more I notice that those without the ‘intel’ are the ones who demand it to be free. The people who don’t know about a particular subject, who want to learn, seem to be the most demanding to get the information they
want, and are willing to do little or nothing in return for it. These are the people that are the most dangerous to our society. They will be the first to take this information, and spread it to all ends of the world, eventually nullifying the value of it.
Bottom line: Since no one can put a true value on information in general, use your experience with it to put a value on the ‘intel’ you want, and the ‘intel’ you have.