"Every time some tech company erected a 10-foot enshittifying fence, someone would show up with an 11-foot disenshittifying ladder."
I propose "unshittification".
Enshittified by vendor → UNshittified by hacker
But seriously: the reason DRM keeps finding its way into products, is that most people don't care & keep buying them.
2nd, centralisation of all kinds: internet access (all through ISPs & backbones), social media (all through FB, TikTok & co), file sharing (all through apps/services powered by a datacenter somewhere), operating systems (single vendor for most devices), etc.
That centralisation makes it easy for vendors to be gatekeepers → enter walled gardens. Capitalist incentives do the rest.
Reduce/remove dependence on such centralized systems, and you'd get a very different ecosystem. Some pieces of the puzzle:
# Seamless, ubiqitous mesh networking. Need an OS component? OS downloads it P2P from your neighbour's device, or person sitting next to you on the train. No need to go through ISP or datacenter in most common cases.
# Same thing for any other file that neighbour has, a la BitTorrent "magnet" link or similar. Global, decentralized file system. All you need is some unique file identifier.
# Dead easy micropayments, everywhere (again: P2P if possible). I like your site, press button "like" in my browser, you earned $0.02
# Social networks - again, P2P. Send messages etc directly to friends' devices (via mesh network, most of the time). No need for FB, Chinese corp, or your country's government to be in the loop.
Some of these puzzle pieces may exist. What's needed is a popular device that does most or all of the above by default, and does it well.
RetroTechie•8mo ago
I propose "unshittification".
Enshittified by vendor → UNshittified by hacker
But seriously: the reason DRM keeps finding its way into products, is that most people don't care & keep buying them.
2nd, centralisation of all kinds: internet access (all through ISPs & backbones), social media (all through FB, TikTok & co), file sharing (all through apps/services powered by a datacenter somewhere), operating systems (single vendor for most devices), etc.
That centralisation makes it easy for vendors to be gatekeepers → enter walled gardens. Capitalist incentives do the rest.
Reduce/remove dependence on such centralized systems, and you'd get a very different ecosystem. Some pieces of the puzzle:
# Seamless, ubiqitous mesh networking. Need an OS component? OS downloads it P2P from your neighbour's device, or person sitting next to you on the train. No need to go through ISP or datacenter in most common cases.
# Same thing for any other file that neighbour has, a la BitTorrent "magnet" link or similar. Global, decentralized file system. All you need is some unique file identifier.
# Dead easy micropayments, everywhere (again: P2P if possible). I like your site, press button "like" in my browser, you earned $0.02
# Social networks - again, P2P. Send messages etc directly to friends' devices (via mesh network, most of the time). No need for FB, Chinese corp, or your country's government to be in the loop.
Some of these puzzle pieces may exist. What's needed is a popular device that does most or all of the above by default, and does it well.