Pluralistic: This "inflation" is different (14 Dec 2022)


Today's links

Continue reading "Pluralistic: This "inflation" is different (14 Dec 2022)"

Pluralistic: How tech changed global labor struggles for better and worse (02 Dec 2022)


Today's links

Continue reading "Pluralistic: How tech changed global labor struggles for better and worse (02 Dec 2022)"

Pluralistic: 14 Oct 2022 Medieval Times invents a modern union-busting tactic; Billionaire dilletantes vs good Democrats


Today's links

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 14 Oct 2022 Medieval Times invents a modern union-busting tactic; Billionaire dilletantes vs good Democrats"

Pluralistic: 22 Sep 2022 Twitch's Chokepoint Capitalism


Today's links

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 22 Sep 2022 Twitch's Chokepoint Capitalism"

What is Chokepoint Capitalism?

Why copyright alone can’t unrig creative labor markets.

A middle school doorway. Three cigarette-smoking hoodlums block it from a small schoolboy, seen from behind, carrying a backpack.
Buffalo Police Department/Public Domain (modified); Erik B. Anderson/CC BY-SA 4.0 (modified)

Chokepoint Capitalism is my next book, co-written with the brilliant copyright scholar Rebecca Giblin. It’s a book about how the markets for creative labor were rigged, and how artists, fans, tinkerers, regulators and lawmakers can unrig them.

That second part is key: this isn’t just a book complaining about how tough things are for artists — it’s a book about how we can make things better.

There’s an obvious reason that our book’s focus on shovel-ready projects to put more money in artists’ pockets is important: you’d have to be a monster to prefer a world that underpays the writers, musicians, actors, and film and TV creators whose work heartens and delights you.

The cover for the Beacon Press edition of Chokepoint Capitalism.

But there’s another reason that this focus on fixing creative labor markets is so important: because copyright, the primary tool we’ve given creators to give them power over their labor, has actually made things worse.
Continue reading "What is Chokepoint Capitalism?"

Pluralistic: 17 Aug 2022: Chokepoint Capitalism Kickstarter is live


Today's links

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 17 Aug 2022: Chokepoint Capitalism Kickstarter is live"

Pluralistic: 06 Jun 2022


Today's links

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 06 Jun 2022"

Pluralistic: 16 May 2022


Today's links

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 16 May 2022"

Pluralistic: 02 May 2022


Today's links

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 02 May 2022"