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Bill's motivations and ideas here seem broadly sane. "Intellectual property", in all it's manifest forms, no longer serves creators because most corporations and publishers act as if above the law, in such disgracefully unethical ways as to make the bargain worthless. There are honest, small publishers out there, but sadly they're a dwindling pool.

It is also pleasant to read such a mildly written yet firm account of "the straw that broke the camel's back". I am very interested in 'thresholds' as part of system dynamics, for example in flocking, public movements and revolutions. Single actor tipping points such as Rosa Parks taking a "white" seat are fascinating from a technical, cultural and systematic view.

I sense we have moved from a general "anti-capitalism" to some even more powerful latent undercurrents in tech, where disaffection with big-tech and surveillance capitalism is poised... for what exactly I don't know. But somewhere out there is a smart, mischievous hacker who will sow the seminal event. Well done to you Bill Willingham.




I wouldn't call Rosa Parks a single actor.

> In shorter words, Miss Rosa Parks's decision to stay in a forward seat was the first move in a planned boycott of the bus company and the city law, a campaign organised long before by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and run by a young, bland, handsome black parson, name of Martin Luther King Jr, who while I was in Montgomery, flew in from Atlanta twice a week to buy little vans for use by the boycotters.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/oct/04/9


On that note, I'll just mention I think that I read a short book called "Mutual Aid" by Dean Spade that really gave me some more ideas for what a world looks like where communities are really taking care of each other and don't have so much emphasis on doing everything yourself.

https://openlibrary.org/works/OL20892439W/Mutual_Aid


Great share, Thanks. Have you read "Tools for Conviviality" by Illich ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tools_for_Conviviality


Actually you're quite right. She was married to Mr. Raymond Parks.

https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/rosa-parks


Not the OP, but why the downvotes? I understand this was a bit off-topic, but I found it a witty reply.


I didn't downvote and it's not the guidelines[0] but generally hackernews doesn't look kindly upon witty or funny replies and tends to emphasize replies that add spread knowledge and encourage discussion.

TIL the guidelines also say:

> Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html




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