Cory Doctorow's (@pluralistic) blog post for today is a speech he gave last night at the University of Toronto, the annual Ursula Franklin Lecture at Innis College.
It's worth reading:
https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/26/ursula-franklin/
It connects the dots between anti-circumvention copyright laws like the USA's Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) (and the Canadian copycat legislation) and the enshittification that ensues when Big Tech does ... well, practically anything. There's a specific example he uses that is horrifying. He also shows exactly how Big Tech has escaped what he identifies as the usual four factors for keeping the worst instincts of companies in check.
I agree with him that we should annul the anti-circumvention law on the books, and would go further in saying that we should explicitly enshrine in law the rights to alter, repair, remove etc. any functionality of products and services that we choose to use. I was one of the original 6,000 Canadians who submitted comments warning against the implementation of these restrictions to our government at the time, and my feelings in support of this are stronger than ever.
Give it a read.
Attached image: I think this is probably overdue.
#CoryDoctorow #DMCA #circumvention #AntiCircumvention #DRM #enshittification #e14n #speech #UniversityOfToronto #InnisCollege #DigitalLock #RightToRepair #BigTech #Google #Facebook #Amazon #Microsoft #Canada #tech #software
