A profoundly stupid case about video game cheating could transform adblocking into a copyright…

🌈 Abstract

The article discusses the shift from capitalism to feudalism, where corporations' "intellectual property" claims increasingly trump individuals' rights to their physical property. It examines the differences between profits and rents, the historical conflict between capitalists and rentiers, and how the expansion of intellectual property (IP) laws is enabling a new form of technofeudalism.

🙋 Q&A

[01] Profits vs. Rents

1. What is the difference between profits and rents?

• Profits are the money a capitalist takes home from paying workers to do productive things, while rents are the money a rentier makes by owning a "factor of production" that the capitalist needs.
• Capitalists risk their capital to get profits, but rents are heavily insulated from risk.

2. How do rents undermine profits?

• Every dollar a capitalist pays in rent (licenses for IP, rent for a building, etc.) is a dollar that can't be extracted in profit and reinvested in the production of more goods and services that society desires.
• The "free markets" of Adam Smith were free from rents, not regulation.

3. How did the industrial revolution triumph over feudalism?

• The industrial revolution was the triumph of profits over rent. For it to succeed, the feudal arrangement had to end, with the serfs being turned off the land and the land given over to sheep grazing.
• Capitalism is incompatible with hereditary lords receiving guaranteed rents from hereditary serfs who are legally obliged to work for them.

[02] The Rise of Technofeudalism

1. How are capitalists trying to become rentiers?

• Capitalists universally aspire to become rentiers and investors seek out companies that have a plan to extract rent, such as those with "moats and walls" - legal privileges and market structures that protect the business from competition and disruption.

2. What is the 21st century's defining source of rent?

• The 21st century's defining source of rent is "IP" - any law or policy that allows a company to exert legal control over its competitors, critics and customers.

3. How does IP conflict with real property rights?

• IP is in irreconcilable conflict with real property rights, as seen in examples like HP wanting to control which ink you use, John Deere wanting to control who can fix your tractor, or Apple dictating which software you can install on your phone.

4. How are IP laws being used to address unrelated problems?

• Progressives are recklessly arguing for the use of IP laws, such as upload filters and banning web scraping, to address problems like Nazi marches and AI training, even though these "cures" are worse than the disease and not actually cures.

5. How have IP laws been used to limit user rights over their own devices?

• The Blizzard v. bnetd case and the Sony v. Datel case show how IP laws have been used to limit users' ability to analyze and modify the software they've paid for on their own devices.

6. How are IP laws being used to limit web browser functionality?

• The Axel Springer lawsuit against Adblock Plus, citing the Sony/Datel case, argues that users' ability to configure their web browsers to block ads infringes on the publisher's IP rights, undermining the browser's role as a "user agent" that serves the user's interests.