Submitted by AnarchoSpook in Anarchism

Obviously exploitation through intellectual property reaches different domains of society. You have independent artists getting sued because they expressed a creative derivative of a work, you have the biggest tech-companies (Apple, Google, Microsoft) effectively using copyright laws to establish monopolies on the information market, you also have pharma companies which kill thousands of people through patenting drugs and consequently making them unavailable. Compared to the private ownership of physical things (like a factory, machines etc), the private ownership of information/art is much less visible, but an ever increasing method of oppression. Industrial machines, logistics, communications, and exchange and storage of money rely on software more than ever; the public consciousness relies on information/art that comes through huge social networking and video streaming platforms more than ever.

This is not an issue generally discussed in anarchist circles, but I found myself thinking about it a lot lately. How can an effective info-politics be constructed, only behind our keyboards? How do we continue doing our art under capitalism? Can we create an info/tech-resistance without creating a class of specialists? It seems like the only way to resist this info-system -an offshoot of the military-industrial complex- is through diverting its tools and using them against it.

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adblocker wrote (edited )

Open source literally everything with the most liberal possible license. Fight as hard as you possibly can against DRM. I question whether piracy is an effective option or whether it will just bring DRM and abusive garbage like DMCA down on us even harder. I personally pirate as much as I can, especially from the big guys, while attempting to support the little guys.

Defensive patents perhaps? Use the system against them?

Also just don't touch their bullshit if you can. Anyone can live without listening to UMG music, or seeing Disney movies, or using Google Play, or Youtube, etc. Not giving them your money or data is basically half the battle.

Also you need to educate. Most of it will fall on deaf ears of people who don't give a fuck, mostly because they have no conception of the actual consequences or even what is happening right now. Some may listen though, and maybe enough can be converted to actually put a dent into these things that are just fueled by the masses. Heal thyself though, try to remove as much of this from your life as you can.

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throwaway wrote

Fuck open source, it's a capitalist spin on Free Software. If you want to make software for people and not for profit, go with a Free Software license, such as the GNU License. Run Free operating systems, such as Elementary OS for your laptop and Lineage OS for your smartphone. Support FOSS developers, not open source developers.

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zzuum wrote (edited )

Not sure what it's called, but how do you feel about that license that allows for ONLY in non commercial products? I.e. companies can't use their code?

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surreal wrote

stuff like these is why humanity is failing

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wild_liger wrote

As long as IP as a paradigm persists, something is either owned or else it's available to be exploited. You can't escape it. The only way to curtail it is to attack the greater paradigms that shape labor in general. The products of people's labor will only be freed when they will no longer have to trade their labor to survive.

Obviously one can try to oppose the most egregious abuses (the Disneys, the Apples, etc...) though the only real way to do it is through political reformism. But trying to completely dismantle IP without dismantling capitalism is a mostly pointless exercise. If those in power couldn't monopolize ideas, they'd just work harder to monopolize means of production.

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rot wrote

It's unfortunately sometimes necessary for people who make money off of creating art.

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