Lawrence Lessig was at the least a fellow traveller of the people who care about general purpose computing (Creative Commons, FSF, EFF, etc etc). He pivoted to

Lawrence Lessig was at the least a fellow traveller of the people who care about general purpose computing (Creative Commons, FSF, EFF, etc etc). He pivoted to campaign finance reform, because he thought that was even more fundamental. Get corporate money out of politics, and much of the pressure on software/hardware freedom disappears. Me, I'd go one step further and say electoral reform is what's needed (in the UK and US, at least). At least then, if we vote for crooks I'll be confident we deserve what we get.