2026-09-28 19:26 UTC
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/
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Replies (1)
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@pluralistic@mamot.fr 2026-09-28 19:28
This is the common factor that binds together that mess of legal oddments, from trademark/copyright/patent to nondisparagement and noncompetes to anticircumvention and personality rights. I think this is both true and a powerful framing. It correctly puts IP in the category of "things corporations do to control you and the rest of the world." 18/