I think a major gift of the internet is access to people you would never have access to otherwise. This is basically the basis for free software, giving you access to the actuall developers of the software you use. But free software developers are not the only ones becoming accessible.
I tried posting to Lawrence Lessig’s blog asking his opinion on the SCO claim that the GPL is preempted by US copyright law, linking to Eben’s article on news.com. Although I didn’t get a in dept reply he did reply:


I’ve not read the claims, but anyone claiming the GPL is “illegal” because “preempted” by US copyright law is someone who knows nothing about preemption or US copyright law.