Di Eric Fleischmann. Originale: Some Thoughts on Liberating Medication, del 28 gennaio 2022. Traduzione di Enrico Sanna. Uno dei vanti principali del capitalismo vuole che sia il sistema che meglio fa incontrare domanda e offerta: se hai bisogno di un bene o di un servizio, il mercato capitalistico provvede. All’atto pratico, però, può avvenire l’esatto opposto. Un…

One of the central claims of capitalism is that it is the best system to bring supply and demand together; when people need a good or service, the capitalist market will provide. However, the reality of the situation can be quite the opposite. An excellent example of this—from my perspective as a lay person whose…

Di Logan Marie Glitterbomb. Originale: The Internet Offered Us Freedom, We Chose Corporate Rule, 13 ottobre 2020. Traduzione di Enrico Sanna. A detta di cypherpunk e cripto-anarchici, una cosa è chiara: internet ci ha offerto la libertà. I movimenti open-source e peer-to-peer (p2p) prosperano ancora in qualche angolino di internet. Vero. Ma molti di noi…

Leia qualquer um dos escritos clássicos dos cypherpunks ou dos cripto-anarquistas e uma coisa é certa: a internet nos ofereceu liberdade. Embora os movimentos de código aberto e ponto a ponto (p2p) ainda estejam vivos e bem em certos cantos da Internet, a maioria de nós escolheu a regra corporativa. Embora as criptomoedas nos ofereçam…

Read any of the classic cypherpunk or crypto-anarchist writings and one thing is clear: the internet offered us freedom. While the open source and peer-to-peer (p2p) movements are still alive and well in certain corners of the internet, most of us have chosen corporate rule instead. While cryptocurrency offered us a medium of exchange that…

Anarchists face the question: Without nations and states wouldn’t a free society be especially ravaged by pandemics? Who would enforce quarantines without rebuilding a centralized institution of violence? It’s a fair question. Anarchism isn’t about a finite goal, but an unending vector pointed towards increasing liberation. We’re not in the habit of “good enough” compromises,…

Come evitare che i porci pascolino tra i beni comuni della conoscenza Di Asem. Originale pubblicato l’undici marzo 2019 con il titolo General Intellect as a Vanguard: Keeping the Pigs from Grazing in the Knowledge Commons. Traduzione di Enrico Sanna. Non è un caso se quando in documenti o discussioni formali si parla di brevetti…

It is not a coincidence that when patents and copyrights are described in formal documents or discussions they are always labeled as “intellectual property” and virtually never as the simple term “property.” Calling it simply property would generate confusion with actually existing forms of private property, such as land, cars, and stocks. Such private property…

C4SS Director William Gillis recently gave this talk in Austin, TX using the lenses of sociology, psychology, and information theory to explore the fundamental limitations of organizations. In other words, it’s a thorough explanation of why meetings suck. Gillis presents a compelling explanation for the ineffectiveness of many political organizations, focused on some of the…

At Techdirt, Mike Masnick reports (“Photographer Learns to Embrace the Public Domain — And is Better Off For It,” Aug. 5) that that Swiss photographer Samuel Zeller has discovered the benefits — to his livelihood! — of putting his work in the public domain. He’s put a lot of his work into the public domain…

At a time when government space programs like NASA’s seem to be in permanent retrenchment — shifting to a strategy focused on uncrewed probes, fighting to maintain an “International Space Station” that looks like a joke compared to Golden Age science fiction visions of giant cartwheel stations in orbit — a lot of people see…

In the wake of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris and around the U.S., sentiment among the governing class is turning powerfully against encryption. Reuters reports an impending “crackdown” on Bitcoin in the EU. Other reports suggest France could inhibit Tor and free wi-fi at will. U.S. officials have taken the opportunity to go on…

A common liberal or “progressive” criticism of so-called “sharing economy” entities like Uber, Lyft and Airbnb (usually appearing in venues like Salon or Alternet) is that they’re “unregulated.”   This implicitly assumes, of course, that regulations like the taxi medallion system exist for some idealistic purpose of serving the “public welfare” and not simply guaranteeing…

C4SS Feed 44 presents Grant Mincy‘s “IP is a Hurdle to Self-Direction” read and edited by Nick Ford. This is the curse of IP – excessive restrictions upheld by laws used to protect the “economic rights” of authors. Instead of promoting scientific progress we are instead beholden to copyright. Instead of allowing human innovation to flourish, we…

Perhaps the most rewarding experience of education is self-direction. Here, the individual fully enjoys his or her own labor. Whatever one’s interests are, self-direction is achieved on one’s own terms. Self-directed education promotes initiative, creativity, co-operative/mutual labor and healthy academic competition in one’s field to cultivate a learning network. This is the very basis of the…

Scrive la Reuters che quest’anno la corte suprema degli Stati Uniti sarà chiamata a decidere sul più alto numero di casi riguardanti la proprietà intellettuale (PI) di tutta la storia. I giudici sono chiamati a decidere su otto casi: sei riguardano brevetti e due riguardano diritti di copia. Un vero e proprio segno dei tempi….

C4SS Media presents Grant Mincy‘s “Common Property, Common Power,” read by James Tuttle and edited by Nick Ford. “What we are seeing is social power at work. The courts, legislature and special interests are powerless in the new public arena. The liberated market is not interested in the ownership of ideas, but rather progress, innovation and co-operative labor….

Reuters reports that this year the United States Supreme Court will hear its highest proportion of intellectual property (IP) cases in history. The justices are set to decide eight cases on IP — six on patent laws and two on copyright. A sign of the times, really. In a world of open source content and the…