Web 2.0’s political activism targeted copyright and proprietary technology restrictions specifically.

Evidence

The political arm of Web 2.0, such as it is, is focused on net neutrality, copyright reform, peer-to-peer advocacy, and government reform; Larry Lessig, the founder of Creative Commons and the Free Culture movement, launched “Change Congress,” a campaign against government corruption and the influence of special interests in the Senate, with Howard Dean’s former campaign manager Joe Trippi. Cory Doctorow, the science-fiction writer and co-author of the popular blog Boing Boing, moonlights as a copyright activist whose scope includes proprietary technologies of all kinds, from genetically engineered seeds that last only a season to printer cartridges that automatically stop working after a certain period of time. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 52

Categorization

• XREF: Links to the broader FOSS/hacker ethos and to later influencer-culture critiques of platform ownership.