I'm going to start by telling you what it cost me to create this book: lots. Lots of time, and in actuality, lots of money. I'm not complaining. I've had plenty of both. A large part of the book was written during a phase of my studies at a vocational college. It's therefore more or less financed by the public means in the form of student financial aid that I received at the time. In a way, you could propose that due to this fact the book belongs to society. The question is whether society wants to have it.

When you publish a book in a conventional manner, i. e. through a publisher, there is always some kind of quality control. People with many years of experience in the field read the material and ascertain that the content is both well formulated and well motivated. The problem is that they also make sure that the content is, as we say, "politically correct", i. e. that no one will take inordinate offense at it. If a publisher releases obviously inappropriate books, it will suffer from badwill. This is why obviously well-written and even more obviously portentous books such as Mein Kampf are printed and distributed by smaller publishers that don't have to worry so much about their reputation.

I don't know if any publisher wants to release this book in print, but I leave this as a possibility. If I haven't received an offer within a year or so, I'll release this book under public domain, which means that it will always be free of copyright. Until then, the following applies to this material:

1: It will be absolutely free in electronic form. It may be copied and distributed through media such as diskettes, CD-ROMs, through BBSs and the Internet, and through public and private organizations without any prior permission from me. I would, however, be grateful for receiving a reference copy in case the book would be mass distributed. These terms will not be altered if a publisher prints the book. I do not intend to commit to a contract with anyone who wants the electronic rights to its content.

2. At the moment it is not permissible to mass-distribute the book in printed form without my prior permission. If you want to print a large run of this book I'm sure I wont have a problem with it, but I'm afraid I need to retain control over this process.

Now that you've read this far, you probably realize that I give you free reign in general terms. The distribution of this book is your responsibility too, and the sound of its message is already ringing in your ear. Put it on disks and give it to your friends. Put it on CDs and distribute it with magazines. Print it out on paper if you want to.

With the exception of electronic and personal use, this work is currently (and ironically) copyright-protected. In an earlier version of this preface I came down on the entire capitalist system, and elaborated on how much I hated attempts to treat information as property. I've now settled down a little and realized that if my thoughts are going to have a chance to reach ordinary people through an established publisher, I must be able to give that publisher some competitive advantages.⁽¹⁾ I'm not a utopianist; therefore, I have to make compromises. (And I'll be damned if I'll lose any sleep over it…)

Finally, I will issue the warning that my own values and opinions heavily influence this book. I'm a declared individualist, and I don't mind being called a socialist. At the intersection of these two values there is a little-known ideology called syndicalism or Kropotkin anarchism. Basically, I consider all private property to be equivalent to theft⁽²⁾, but I'm not so bloody stupid that I don't realize that a society without private property is a utopia. My opinions on freedom of speech and of the press are similar to those of the most liberal organizations in Sweden. I have nothing against small and medium-sized companies, but to me, enormous intercontinental corporations are more dangerous factions of power than democratic governments, and as such, corporations must be subject to the same oversight as that for governmental organizations.

I'm now going to tell you about the culture that made me what I am.