iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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

I say that "IP" means "any rule, law or policy that allows a company to exert control over its critics, competitors or customers": locusmag.com/2020/09/cory... Put that way, it's easy to see why "IP" would be such a central organizing principle in a modern, end-stage capitalist world. 9/

locusmag.com

Cory Doctorow: IP

You’ve probably heard of “open source software.” If you pay attention to the politics of this stuff, you might have heard of “free software” and even know a little ab…

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

But even though "IP" is treated as a firm's most important asset, it's actually far less important than another intangible: *process knowledge*. 10/

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

I first came across the concept of "process knowledge" in Dan Wang's *Breakneck*, a very good book about the rise and rise of Chinese manufacturing, industrialization and global dominance: danwang.co/breakneck/ 11/

danwang.co

Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future | Dan Wang

Announcing my book; whalelore; Austrian Catholicism; the legacy of Moses and Rickover; Yunnan; influencer culture; how historians work.

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