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> Google and other tech companies should continue to find ways to stop the disposability treadmill that pressures us to replace our phones and laptops in favor
by Zambyte 3y ago
> Google and other tech companies should continue to find ways to stop the disposability treadmill that pressures us to replace our phones and laptops in favor of newer models.
The treadmill is powered by "intellectual property". Abolish "owning" ideas, and you abolish the treadmill. Capitalism would solve this issue if it were allowed to run its course. Unfortunately we've let artificial monopolies run rampant in the name of "innovation". All that we've innovated is screwing people over as much as possible.
- LordDragonfang 3y agoIntellectual property is capital. Advocating for communal ownership for the intellectual means of production is more communist than it is capitalist. The market can then fix it once you've removed intellectual capitalism from the equation.
- freedomben 3y agoThere are plenty of capitalists who would disagree by arguing that "intellectual property" isn't capital because such thing isn't even possible. Many anarcho-capitalists hold this position. I'm not versed enough to argue it in depth, but the basic premise is that you can't "own" an idea/thought, and there's no scarcity at play with ideas so it fails the basic test for property.
- squarefoot 3y agoI guess the system worked around that limitation by hiring people with ideas and have them sign NDAs.
- teddyh 3y agoBitcoin is commonly held to be worth something, i.e., an asset. But there are many who argue that its “true” value is 0. Something similar to that divergence is happening here. We, as a society, have a convention, a habit, where copyrighted works, trademarks, mining rights, etc. are restricted by law to be controlled by a single legal entity. This makes these a tradable commodity. But if the law did not apply to these, they would become worthless. It is, in fact, these laws which have created this tradable commodity from nothing. Other laws could be created to do the same to any number of currently freely available things; this does not prove that these things should be covered by such laws merely because it would create a kind of property which would have value.
- noobermin 3y agoIt would be nice if the solution wasn't "restructure society" because if that's true what will really happen is nothing changes.
- account42 3y agoThis is a very dangerous mindset. Copyright is only a couple hundred years old and much younger in many countries. Many parts of modern copyright (notably the infamous DMCA and equivalent non-US laws) were introduced within our lifetimes. We did restructure society but in the wrong direction, lets not pretend we can't fix that.
- runeks 3y ago> The treadmill is powered by "intellectual property". Abolish "owning" ideas, and you abolish the treadmill. How so?
- account42 3y agoA lot of devices become obsolete by no longer receiving security and compatibilty updates long before the hardware is unusable.
- Zambyte 3y agoExactly. If a single company could not be granted an artificial monopoly over upgrading and repairing a system due to "intellectual property" laws, no company could decide when a device has become EOL. If anyone could maintain a system, anyone would maintain a system.
- idle_zealot 3y agoI'm not sure Chromebooks are the best example of this issue. Last I checked you can install normal Linux on one.
- RuggedPineapple 3y agoWith some caveats. I've run used chromebooks as my only laptop for about 5 or 6 years now. You have to undo write protection (usually a screw on the motherboard) and flash an aftermarket firmware.
- thefurdrake 3y agoDoes normal linux provide firmware updates for chromebook-specific hardware?
- Zambyte 3y agoI never said they were the best example. Nor was that really the sentiment of the comment I originally replied to, or my reply to it.