2026-09-28 19:26 UTC
The adoption of IP was a branding exercise, a very successful attempt to transform the public's perception of these rules as natural, freestanding property rights that the law merely ratified - not a set of regulatory gifts designed to protect the self-interest of commercial firms.
I get it. Between the tactical confusion and the invocation of "property," "IP" feels like terrain worth fighting over.
16/
Replies (1)
-
@pluralistic@mamot.fr 2026-09-28 19:26
Once you let your adversary frame the debate in terms of property, you've already lost half the battle. For many years, I bought into this. But lately, I've grown more skeptical of this matter. Back in 2020, I published a long essay proposing that far from being confusing or ambiguous, "IP" has a crisp, widely understood meaning: "Any law that lets me reach beyond the walls of my company to exert control over my competitors, critics and customers": https://locusmag.com/feature/cory-doctorow-ip/ 17/