Late last year, president Obama signed a law that makes it possible to  indefinitely detain terrorist suspects without any form of trial or due  process. Peaceful protesters in Occupy movements all over the world have  been labelled as terrorists by the authorities. Initiatives like SOPA  promote diligent monitoring of communication channels. Thirty years ago,  when Richard Stallman launched the GNU project, and during the three  decades that followed, his sometimes extreme views and peculiar antics  were ridiculed and disregarded as paranoia - but here we are, 2012, and  his once paranoid what-ifs have become reality.
