The technologies in use on the internet today, from browsers and POP email programs to streaming video, were all developed by this shareware community of software engineers.

Software known as 'freeware' and 'shareware' gave rise to a gift economy based on community and mutual self-interest.

Unsubstantiated and bungled raids on young hackers and their families turned law enforcement into the Keystone Cops of cyberspace and the US Justice Department into a sworn enemy of the shareware community's most valuable members.

They founded one based in the original values of the shareware software development community, concluding that proprietary software is crippled by the many efforts to keep its underlying code a secret and locked down.