iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 08/04/2026

"Intellectual property" was once an obscure legal backwater. Today, it is *the* dominant area of political economy, the organizing regime for almost all of our tech regulation, and the most valuable - and most controversial - aspect of global trade policy: pluralistic.net/2026/04/01/m... 1/

A woman washing dishes by hand in a rural, early 20th century shack. In the foreground is a jumble of tortured golgthan skeletons ganked from a Dore Old Testament engraving. Through the window in the back of the shack, we see a detail from another Dore Old Testament engraving: bodies escaping The Flood.

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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 08/04/2026

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog: pluralistic.net/2026/04/08/p... 2/

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Andy Cameron @andcam.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

On reflection, institutional knowledge feels a little similar conceptually to our natural ecosystem. Companies are not required to factor its value into their financial modelling (it’s an “externality”), so don’t consider the impact of destroying it. Until it’s gone, and then they’re screwed.

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Elk @an-elk.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

Yes, companies have no clue what their processes are. Even companies with good documentation of their processes usually only capture the processes themselves, and not the rational behind them (which can be more important than the how-to-do-this-thing instructions), because change is a constant.

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