#enclosure — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #enclosure, aggregated by home.social.
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Cut And Fold Your 3D Printer’s Next Cover
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://hackaday.com/2026/07/15/cut-and-fold-your-3d-printers-next-cover/
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'in twenty-five years of asking about nuclear plants, Gallup NEVER recorded opposition as high to nuclear reactions as data centers are drawing now'
#genAI #ai #polycrisis #enclosure #technology #publicPolicy
https://nathannewman.substack.com/p/anti-ai-messaging-should-be-centerpiece
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'in twenty-five years of asking about nuclear plants, Gallup NEVER recorded opposition as high to nuclear reactions as data centers are drawing now'
#genAI #ai #polycrisis #enclosure #technology #publicPolicy
https://nathannewman.substack.com/p/anti-ai-messaging-should-be-centerpiece
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What the Commons Built (And What's Taking It Apart)
In 1976, Bill Gates wrote an open letter to hobbyists accusing them of stealing. What they were actually doing was sharing software they had written for each other (modifications, tools, documentation), the way people had shared knowledge since the first person showed another how to do something useful. Gates reframed mutual aid as intellectual property theft. It was not a philosophical claim. It was a property claim, backed by lawyers, Congress, and eventually the World Trade Organization.https://web.brid.gy/r/https://gaggl.com/blogs/2026-07-14-what-the-commons-built/
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What the Commons Built (And What's Taking It Apart)
In 1976, Bill Gates wrote an open letter to hobbyists accusing them of stealing. What they were actually doing was sharing software they had written for each other (modifications, tools, documentation), the way people had shared knowledge since the first person showed another how to do something useful. Gates reframed mutual aid as intellectual property theft. It was not a philosophical claim. It was a property claim, backed by lawyers, Congress, and eventually the World Trade Organization.https://web.brid.gy/r/https://gaggl.com/blogs/2026-07-14-what-the-commons-built/
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What the Commons Built (And What's Taking It Apart)
In 1976, Bill Gates wrote an open letter to hobbyists accusing them of stealing. What they were actually doing was sharing software they had written for each other (modifications, tools, documentation), the way people had shared knowledge since the first person showed another how to do something useful. Gates reframed mutual aid as intellectual property theft. It was not a philosophical claim. It was a property claim, backed by lawyers, Congress, and eventually the World Trade Organization.https://web.brid.gy/r/https://gaggl.com/blogs/2026-07-14-what-the-commons-built/
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What the Commons Built (And What's Taking It Apart)
In 1976, Bill Gates wrote an open letter to hobbyists accusing them of stealing. What they were actually doing was sharing software they had written for each other (modifications, tools, documentation), the way people had shared knowledge since the first person showed another how to do something useful. Gates reframed mutual aid as intellectual property theft. It was not a philosophical claim. It was a property claim, backed by lawyers, Congress, and eventually the World Trade Organization.https://web.brid.gy/r/https://gaggl.com/blogs/2026-07-14-what-the-commons-built/
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What the Commons Built (And What's Taking It Apart)
In 1976, Bill Gates wrote an open letter to hobbyists accusing them of stealing. What they were actually doing was sharing software they had written for each other (modifications, tools, documentation), the way people had shared knowledge since the first person showed another how to do something useful. Gates reframed mutual aid as intellectual property theft. It was not a philosophical claim. It was a property claim, backed by lawyers, Congress, and eventually the World Trade Organization.https://web.brid.gy/r/https://gaggl.com/blogs/2026-07-14-what-the-commons-built/
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“It’s the economy, stupid”*…
Source and backgroundMany Americans take pride in having the largest economy in the world… which, per the chart above, by one measure we do.
But then, if we adjust for population– calculate per capita– the picture changes…
Source and backgroundAnd we note both that, on a PP basis, the U.S. would be lower and, more fundamentally, that the standing of the U.S. is slipping over time.
If we dive more deeply still, the picture complicates further…
Source and backgroundThis last chart illustrates the wealth inequality in the U.S., which drops from 2nd to 28th when wealth is measured by the median instead of the average… a wealth gap that has been growing since 1985 (and that is combined with an income gap that has been growing since 1980). For more, see World Inequality Database.
* James Carville
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As we search for the source of that smell, we might recall that it was on this date in 1549 that Robert Kett agreed to head a group of rebels in the English county of Norfolk during the reign of Tudor king Edward VI. The rebels were incensed by enclosure (the fencing off of common lands by wealthy landlords, as a product of which many peasants lost access to grazing, fuel, and small plots they had long used), along with rising rents, inflation, unemployment, and declining wages; as a response, they began destroying fences. One of their early targets was yeoman Robert Kett who, instead of resisting the rebels, agreed to their demands and offered to lead them.
Kett and his forces, joined by recruits from the city of Norwich and the surrounding countryside and numbering some 16,000, stormed Norwich and took the city at the end of July. They were besieged by, then routed, a Royal Army detachment led by the Marquess of Northampton who had been sent by the government to suppress the uprising.
But what became known as “Kett’s Rebellion” ended on August 27, when the rebels were defeated by an army under the leadership of the Earl of Warwick at the Battle of Dussindale. Kett was captured, held in the Tower of London, tried for treason, and hanged from the walls of Norwich Castle on December 7.
Robert Kett and his followers under the Oak of Reformation on Mousehold Heath. from Kett’s Rebellion in Norfolk (1859) source #culture #economicInequality #economics #enclosure #history #income #inequality #KettSRebellion #politics #RobertKett #USEconomy #wealth -
“It’s the economy, stupid”*…
Source and backgroundMany Americans take pride in having the largest economy in the world… which, per the chart above, by one measure we do.
But then, if we adjust for population– calculate per capita– the picture changes…
Source and backgroundAnd we note both that, on a PP basis, the U.S. would be lower and, more fundamentally, that the standing of the U.S. is slipping over time.
If we dive more deeply still, the picture complicates further…
Source and backgroundThis last chart illustrates the wealth inequality in the U.S., which drops from 2nd to 28th when wealth is measured by the median instead of the average… a wealth gap that has been growing since 1985 (and that is combined with an income gap that has been growing since 1980). For more, see World Inequality Database.
* James Carville
###
As we search for the source of that smell, we might recall that it was on this date in 1549 that Robert Kett agreed to head a group of rebels in the English county of Norfolk during the reign of Tudor king Edward VI. The rebels were incensed by enclosure (the fencing off of common lands by wealthy landlords, as a product of which many peasants lost access to grazing, fuel, and small plots they had long used), along with rising rents, inflation, unemployment, and declining wages; as a response, they began destroying fences. One of their early targets was yeoman Robert Kett who, instead of resisting the rebels, agreed to their demands and offered to lead them.
Kett and his forces, joined by recruits from the city of Norwich and the surrounding countryside and numbering some 16,000, stormed Norwich and took the city at the end of July. They were besieged by, then routed, a Royal Army detachment led by the Marquess of Northampton who had been sent by the government to suppress the uprising.
But what became known as “Kett’s Rebellion” ended on August 27, when the rebels were defeated by an army under the leadership of the Earl of Warwick at the Battle of Dussindale. Kett was captured, held in the Tower of London, tried for treason, and hanged from the walls of Norwich Castle on December 7.
Robert Kett and his followers under the Oak of Reformation on Mousehold Heath. from Kett’s Rebellion in Norfolk (1859) source #culture #economicInequality #economics #enclosure #history #income #inequality #KettSRebellion #politics #RobertKett #USEconomy #wealth -
“It’s the economy, stupid”*…
Source and backgroundMany Americans take pride in having the largest economy in the world… which, per the chart above, by one measure we do.
But then, if we adjust for population– calculate per capita– the picture changes…
Source and backgroundAnd we note both that, on a PP basis, the U.S. would be lower and, more fundamentally, that the standing of the U.S. is slipping over time.
If we dive more deeply still, the picture complicates further…
Source and backgroundThis last chart illustrates the wealth inequality in the U.S., which drops from 2nd to 28th when wealth is measured by the median instead of the average… a wealth gap that has been growing since 1985 (and that is combined with an income gap that has been growing since 1980). For more, see World Inequality Database.
* James Carville
###
As we search for the source of that smell, we might recall that it was on this date in 1549 that Robert Kett agreed to head a group of rebels in the English county of Norfolk during the reign of Tudor king Edward VI. The rebels were incensed by enclosure (the fencing off of common lands by wealthy landlords, as a product of which many peasants lost access to grazing, fuel, and small plots they had long used), along with rising rents, inflation, unemployment, and declining wages; as a response, they began destroying fences. One of their early targets was yeoman Robert Kett who, instead of resisting the rebels, agreed to their demands and offered to lead them.
Kett and his forces, joined by recruits from the city of Norwich and the surrounding countryside and numbering some 16,000, stormed Norwich and took the city at the end of July. They were besieged by, then routed, a Royal Army detachment led by the Marquess of Northampton who had been sent by the government to suppress the uprising.
But what became known as “Kett’s Rebellion” ended on August 27, when the rebels were defeated by an army under the leadership of the Earl of Warwick at the Battle of Dussindale. Kett was captured, held in the Tower of London, tried for treason, and hanged from the walls of Norwich Castle on December 7.
Robert Kett and his followers under the Oak of Reformation on Mousehold Heath. from Kett’s Rebellion in Norfolk (1859) source #culture #economicInequality #economics #enclosure #history #income #inequality #KettSRebellion #politics #RobertKett #USEconomy #wealth -
“It’s the economy, stupid”*…
Source and backgroundMany Americans take pride in having the largest economy in the world… which, per the chart above, by one measure we do.
But then, if we adjust for population– calculate per capita– the picture changes…
Source and backgroundAnd we note both that, on a PP basis, the U.S. would be lower and, more fundamentally, that the standing of the U.S. is slipping over time.
If we dive more deeply still, the picture complicates further…
Source and backgroundThis last chart illustrates the wealth inequality in the U.S., which drops from 2nd to 28th when wealth is measured by the median instead of the average… a wealth gap that has been growing since 1985 (and that is combined with an income gap that has been growing since 1980). For more, see World Inequality Database.
* James Carville
###
As we search for the source of that smell, we might recall that it was on this date in 1549 that Robert Kett agreed to head a group of rebels in the English county of Norfolk during the reign of Tudor king Edward VI. The rebels were incensed by enclosure (the fencing off of common lands by wealthy landlords, as a product of which many peasants lost access to grazing, fuel, and small plots they had long used), along with rising rents, inflation, unemployment, and declining wages; as a response, they began destroying fences. One of their early targets was yeoman Robert Kett who, instead of resisting the rebels, agreed to their demands and offered to lead them.
Kett and his forces, joined by recruits from the city of Norwich and the surrounding countryside and numbering some 16,000, stormed Norwich and took the city at the end of July. They were besieged by, then routed, a Royal Army detachment led by the Marquess of Northampton who had been sent by the government to suppress the uprising.
But what became known as “Kett’s Rebellion” ended on August 27, when the rebels were defeated by an army under the leadership of the Earl of Warwick at the Battle of Dussindale. Kett was captured, held in the Tower of London, tried for treason, and hanged from the walls of Norwich Castle on December 7.
Robert Kett and his followers under the Oak of Reformation on Mousehold Heath. from Kett’s Rebellion in Norfolk (1859) source #culture #economicInequality #economics #enclosure #history #income #inequality #KettSRebellion #politics #RobertKett #USEconomy #wealth -
“It’s the economy, stupid”*…
Source and backgroundMany Americans take pride in having the largest economy in the world… which, per the chart above, by one measure we do.
But then, if we adjust for population– calculate per capita– the picture changes…
Source and backgroundAnd we note both that, on a PP basis, the U.S. would be lower and, more fundamentally, that the standing of the U.S. is slipping over time.
If we dive more deeply still, the picture complicates further…
Source and backgroundThis last chart illustrates the wealth inequality in the U.S., which drops from 2nd to 28th when wealth is measured by the median instead of the average… a wealth gap that has been growing since 1985 (and that is combined with an income gap that has been growing since 1980). For more, see World Inequality Database.
* James Carville
###
As we search for the source of that smell, we might recall that it was on this date in 1549 that Robert Kett agreed to head a group of rebels in the English county of Norfolk during the reign of Tudor king Edward VI. The rebels were incensed by enclosure (the fencing off of common lands by wealthy landlords, as a product of which many peasants lost access to grazing, fuel, and small plots they had long used), along with rising rents, inflation, unemployment, and declining wages; as a response, they began destroying fences. One of their early targets was yeoman Robert Kett who, instead of resisting the rebels, agreed to their demands and offered to lead them.
Kett and his forces, joined by recruits from the city of Norwich and the surrounding countryside and numbering some 16,000, stormed Norwich and took the city at the end of July. They were besieged by, then routed, a Royal Army detachment led by the Marquess of Northampton who had been sent by the government to suppress the uprising.
But what became known as “Kett’s Rebellion” ended on August 27, when the rebels were defeated by an army under the leadership of the Earl of Warwick at the Battle of Dussindale. Kett was captured, held in the Tower of London, tried for treason, and hanged from the walls of Norwich Castle on December 7.
Robert Kett and his followers under the Oak of Reformation on Mousehold Heath. from Kett’s Rebellion in Norfolk (1859) source #culture #economicInequality #economics #enclosure #history #income #inequality #KettSRebellion #politics #RobertKett #USEconomy #wealth -
https://www.europesays.com/videos/46013/ Toddler in critical condition after crocodile enclosure incident – what we know so far #arrested #AttemptedMurder #boy #Cambridgeshire #Crime #crocodile #enclosure #Huntingdon #news #police #sky #SkyNews #TODDLER #uk #zoo
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The non-action bloc: resignation, cynicism, and the culture that keeps people powerless
"#Oxfordboaters - Some of the people have to lie to themselves as they blindly believe in private property and rule of law but squat on private property and brack the law by not moving. They try and pretend this is not true, if they do this pretending to strongly they will make us all homeless." A lot of people are up shit creek without a paddle, yet keep looking in the same places that got them there. On this apathy and laissez-faire "common sense", we have a real problem, decades of […] -
The non-action bloc: resignation, cynicism, and the culture that keeps people powerless
"#Oxfordboaters - Some of the people have to lie to themselves as they blindly believe in private property and rule of law but squat on private property and brack the law by not moving. They try and pretend this is not true, if they do this pretending to strongly they will make us all homeless." A lot of people are up shit creek without a paddle, yet keep looking in the same places that got them there. On this apathy and laissez-faire "common sense", we have a real problem, decades of […] -
The non-action bloc: resignation, cynicism, and the culture that keeps people powerless
We can't do much about the hardened #fluffy crowd - so committed to comfort and respectability that no amount of evidence will shift them toward meaningful action. That is a real limit, and it's worth being honest about it rather than wasting energy trying to convert the unconvertible. But the hardened fluffy crowd is not the main problem. The more urgent challenge is the vast non-action bloc: the enormous number of people who are not hostile to change, not ideologically committed to the […] -
The non-action bloc: resignation, cynicism, and the culture that keeps people powerless
We can't do much about the hardened #fluffy crowd - so committed to comfort and respectability that no amount of evidence will shift them toward meaningful action. That is a real limit, and it's worth being honest about it rather than wasting energy trying to convert the unconvertible. But the hardened fluffy crowd is not the main problem. The more urgent challenge is the vast non-action bloc: the enormous number of people who are not hostile to change, not ideologically committed to the […] -
The non-action bloc: resignation, cynicism, and the culture that keeps people powerless
We can't do much about the hardened #fluffy crowd - so committed to comfort and respectability that no amount of evidence will shift them toward meaningful action. That is a real limit, and it's worth being honest about it rather than wasting energy trying to convert the unconvertible. But the hardened fluffy crowd is not the main problem. The more urgent challenge is the vast non-action bloc: the enormous number of people who are not hostile to change, not ideologically committed to the […] -
The everyday con: How the #deathcult turns crisis into extraction
The story is simple once you stop looking at the green branding and start looking at social power. A powerless tenant farmer in the Cairngorms watches land his family has worked for generations sell for ten times what it was worth only a few years ago. Not because farming suddenly became more valuable, but because carbon became a speculative asset. A corporation somewhere needs a green badge, farm land becomes the badge, our agriculture disappearing becomes the cost. This is not a "mistake", […]https://hamishcampbell.com/the-everyday-con-how-the-deathcult-turns-crisis-into-extraction/
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The everyday con: How the #deathcult turns crisis into extraction
The story is simple once you stop looking at the green branding and start looking at social power. A powerless tenant farmer in the Cairngorms watches land his family has worked for generations sell for ten times what it was worth only a few years ago. Not because farming suddenly became more valuable, but because carbon became a speculative asset. A corporation somewhere needs a green badge, farm land becomes the badge, our agriculture disappearing becomes the cost. This is not a "mistake", […]https://hamishcampbell.com/the-everyday-con-how-the-deathcult-turns-crisis-into-extraction/
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A Fume-Control Cabinet for Resin 3D Printing
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://hackaday.com/2026/05/29/a-fume-control-cabinet-for-resin-3d-printing/
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The #Religious Function of #Whiteness and Mass Criminalization in the US with Andrew Krinks
#US #BlackFedi #AmericanApartheid #Capitalism #RacialCaptialism #JimCrow #SurveillanceCapitalism #Neoliberalism #Enclosure #Ethnostate #ColonialViolence #WhiteNationalism #EuroChristian #ChristianNationalism #Christofascism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwuskHtC4Js&t=629s -
The #Religious Function of #Whiteness and Mass Criminalization in the US with Andrew Krinks
#US #BlackFedi #AmericanApartheid #Capitalism #RacialCaptialism #JimCrow #SurveillanceCapitalism #Neoliberalism #Enclosure #Ethnostate #ColonialViolence #WhiteNationalism #EuroChristian #ChristianNationalism #Christofascism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwuskHtC4Js&t=629s -
The #Religious Function of #Whiteness and Mass Criminalization in the US with Andrew Krinks
#US #BlackFedi #AmericanApartheid #Capitalism #RacialCaptialism #JimCrow #SurveillanceCapitalism #Neoliberalism #Enclosure #Ethnostate #ColonialViolence #WhiteNationalism #EuroChristian #ChristianNationalism #Christofascism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwuskHtC4Js&t=629s -
The #Religious Function of #Whiteness and Mass Criminalization in the US with Andrew Krinks
#US #BlackFedi #AmericanApartheid #Capitalism #RacialCaptialism #JimCrow #SurveillanceCapitalism #Neoliberalism #Enclosure #Ethnostate #ColonialViolence #WhiteNationalism #EuroChristian #ChristianNationalism #Christofascism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwuskHtC4Js&t=629s -
#capitalism is fundamentally a game over asymmetric enforcement of property rights. Nowhere is that clearer than with digital goods, where rights holders control what counts as “access” to the digital products and services we buy.
This isn't unlike the brutal fights over land and personhood fought earlier in capitalism's history. This keeps happening because capitalism is a political governance system.
https://misaligned.markets/21st-century-property-rights-conflicts/
#righttorepair #DRM #enclosure #enshittification #tech #bigtech
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#capitalism is fundamentally a game over asymmetric enforcement of property rights. Nowhere is that clearer than with digital goods, where rights holders control what counts as “access” to the digital products and services we buy.
This isn't unlike the brutal fights over land and personhood fought earlier in capitalism's history. This keeps happening because capitalism is a political governance system.
https://misaligned.markets/21st-century-property-rights-conflicts/
#righttorepair #DRM #enclosure #enshittification #tech #bigtech
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Our new geomagnetic study of the early Eneolithic fortified site in Bronocice, S PL is available. The whole vol. 53 of Documenta Praehistorica journal seems to be interesting!
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Our new geomagnetic study of the early Eneolithic fortified site in Bronocice, S PL is available. The whole vol. 53 of Documenta Praehistorica journal seems to be interesting!
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The OWC Express 4M2 Ultra is a Wicked Fast Thunderbolt 5 SSD Array https://petapixel.com/2026/04/20/the-owc-express-4m2-ultra-is-a-wicked-fast-thunderbolt-5-ssd-array/ #otherworldcomputing #owcexpress4m2ultra #Equipment #enclosure #m.2nvme #storage #News #raid #owc #ssd
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The OWC Express 4M2 Ultra is a Wicked Fast Thunderbolt 5 SSD Array https://petapixel.com/2026/04/20/the-owc-express-4m2-ultra-is-a-wicked-fast-thunderbolt-5-ssd-array/ #otherworldcomputing #owcexpress4m2ultra #Equipment #enclosure #m.2nvme #storage #News #raid #owc #ssd
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• C’est ambitieux.
• Non. C’est simple. C’est pour ça que c’est difficile.
https://hyper.dev/2026/enclosure-du-code/fin-le-prelude-et-apres/
#logicielLibre #enclosure #scheme #communs -
• C’est ambitieux.
• Non. C’est simple. C’est pour ça que c’est difficile.
https://hyper.dev/2026/enclosure-du-code/fin-le-prelude-et-apres/
#logicielLibre #enclosure #scheme #communs -
idle brain – the sin of being born
It's a beautiful world but the problem is I don't know what beautuy is anymore. A bird flies, but those with no wings say flight is beautiful. Those who believe in free will say flight is freedom, but what does a bird know about freedom and will? I'm not an intellectual, so perhaps I may never understand what Beauty is. We know nothing of birds either, just the anatomy. What about qualia? Bird's eye view, my ass. We think that's how a bird sees. Even if it does what does it perceive? Fly like […]https://ridiculousbharath.wordpress.com/2026/04/18/idle-brain-the-sin-of-being-born/
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"Congress Wants To Put The Law Behind A Paywall. Again."
https://www.techdirt.com/2026/04/06/congress-wants-to-put-the-law-behind-a-paywall-again/"Every relevant court that has looked at this question — including the Supreme Court — has agreed: no one can own the law. When private standards get incorporated into binding legal requirements, the public has a right to access them freely…So naturally, a bipartisan group of senators has reintroduced a bill to override all of that. Senators Coons, Cornyn, Hirono, and Tillis have brought back the Pro Codes Act, a bill that would grant copyright protection to standards that have been incorporated by reference into law."
#Copyright #Enclosure #Law #Paywalls #SCOTUS #USLaw #USPol #USPolitics
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"Congress Wants To Put The Law Behind A Paywall. Again."
https://www.techdirt.com/2026/04/06/congress-wants-to-put-the-law-behind-a-paywall-again/"Every relevant court that has looked at this question — including the Supreme Court — has agreed: no one can own the law. When private standards get incorporated into binding legal requirements, the public has a right to access them freely…So naturally, a bipartisan group of senators has reintroduced a bill to override all of that. Senators Coons, Cornyn, Hirono, and Tillis have brought back the Pro Codes Act, a bill that would grant copyright protection to standards that have been incorporated by reference into law."
#Copyright #Enclosure #Law #Paywalls #SCOTUS #USLaw #USPol #USPolitics
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This Front Panel Makes Its Own Clean-Edged Drill Guides
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This Front Panel Makes Its Own Clean-Edged Drill Guides
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“The enclosure of the commons inaugurates a new ecological order. Enclosure did not just physically transfer the control over grasslands from the peasants to the lord. It marked a radical change in the attitudes of society toward the environment.”*…
The Gleaners by Jean-Francois Millet (1857)Several days ago, juries in New Mexico and California found Facebook/Meta (and in California, also YouTube/Google) guilty of knowingly employing algorithms to serve content to minors that caused depression, anxiety, and other mental health harms… behavior par for the course of the (massive, “mechanical”) extractive behavior that is their business model. As NPR reports (on the California verdict):
While the financial punishment is miniscule for companies each worth trillions of dollars, the decision is still consequential. It represents the first time a jury has found that social media apps should be treated as defective products for being engineered to exploit the developing brains of kids and teenagers… The outcome of this case could influence thousands of other consolidated cases against the social media companies. The litigation has drawn comparisons to the legal crusade in the 1990s against Big Tobacco, which forced the industry to to stop targeting minors with advertising…
L. M. Sacasas draws on a comparison to the English “enclosure movement” (and here) to put the stakes of this battle against algorithmic extraction into historical context…
If you were to ask me something like “What’s the most urgent task before us?” or “What counsel do you have to offer in this cultural moment?” I would say this:
Resist the enclosure of the human psyche.
Don’t misunderstand me. I’m sure there are other necessary and urgent tasks. But this would be my contribution to the conversation. I would be offering not only an imperative to pursue, but also, and perhaps more importantly, an analogy to clarify and interpret the techno-economic forces at play in a digitized society. Such analogies or concepts can be useful. They can crystalize a certain understanding of the world and catalyze action and resolve. They can be a rallying cry.
In any case, I’ll say it again: resist the enclosure of the human psyche.
Some of you may immediately intuit the force of the analogy, but I suspect it needs a little unpacking.
Here’s the short version: I’m drawing an analogy between a historical development known as the enclosure of the commons and the condition of the human psyche in the context of a digitized society. The enclosure of the commons is the name given to the centuries-long process by which lands available to the many were turned into a resource to be managed and extracted by the few. My claim is that structurally similar processes are unfolding with the aim of enclosing the human psyche and transforming it into a resource to be managed and extracted…
The longer version, which follows, unpacks that analogy and explains what the impact of “enclosing the human psyche” could– would likely– be. Sacasas concludes…
… The individual human psyche does not seem like a thing held in common. But, in fact, that presumption may itself be a symptom of the enclosure of the psyche, although there are certainly many other forces leading toward that same conclusion. What if the psyche were a thing held in common? That is to say, what if our purchase on reality and the emergence of the self depended on human relationships and communities? From this perspective, the enclosure of the human psyche deprives us of a common world, which yields an experience of solidarity and belonging.
I’ve elsewhere developed this point at greater length, but here I’ll only note Hannah Arendt’s warning that we are deprived of a “truly human life” when we are “deprived of the reality that comes from being seen and heard by others, to be deprived of an ‘objective’ relationship with them that comes from being related to and separated from them through the intermediary of a common world of things.”
That last bit about a common world of things, a material, not only virtual world, is key. The logic of enclosure seeks to lock us into a private virtual world of “bespoke realities,” thus excluding us from the common world of things that yields as well a public consciousness. As Arendt put it, “Only the experience of sharing a common human world with others who look at it from different perspectives can enable us to see reality in the round and to develop a shared common sense.”…
Eminently worth reading in full: “The Enclosure of the Human Psyche“
* Ivan Illich, “Silence is a commons” in In the Mirror of the Past (to which Sacasas alludes in the essay linked above)
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As we cosset commons, we might recall that it was on this date in 1867 that a bilateral treaty was signed effecting the sale of Alaska by Russia to the United States. It was ratified on May15 and American sovereignty took effect on October 18 of that year. The price for the 586,412 square miles that changed hands was $7.2 million in 1867 (equivalent to about $132 million in 2024), or about $0.02 per acre ($0.37 per acre in 2024).
Relevantly to the piece above, the land was and is largely commonly held, by the federal government, by the state, and by Native American tribes. Only roughly 1% of Alaska is in private hands. But that sliver is growing as the Trump Administration moves to “liquidate” federal real estate holdings (sell them to private owners) and in the meantime, licenses huge swathes of Alaska for oil and gas development, mineral extraction, and the infrastrucutre (roads, pipelines) needed to service them. Alaskans are worried.
The $7.2 million check used to pay for Alaska (source) #access #Alaska #AlaskaPurchase #commons #culture #enclosure #enclosureMovement #history #humanPsyche #LMSacasas #land #landAccess #landOwnership #landUse #ownership #politics #psyche #Russia -
“The enclosure of the commons inaugurates a new ecological order. Enclosure did not just physically transfer the control over grasslands from the peasants to the lord. It marked a radical change in the attitudes of society toward the environment.”*…
The Gleaners by Jean-Francois Millet (1857)Several days ago, juries in New Mexico and California found Facebook/Meta (and in California, also YouTube/Google) guilty of knowingly employing algorithms to serve content to minors that caused depression, anxiety, and other mental health harms… behavior par for the course of the (massive, “mechanical”) extractive behavior that is their business model. As NPR reports (on the California verdict):
While the financial punishment is miniscule for companies each worth trillions of dollars, the decision is still consequential. It represents the first time a jury has found that social media apps should be treated as defective products for being engineered to exploit the developing brains of kids and teenagers… The outcome of this case could influence thousands of other consolidated cases against the social media companies. The litigation has drawn comparisons to the legal crusade in the 1990s against Big Tobacco, which forced the industry to to stop targeting minors with advertising…
L. M. Sacasas draws on a comparison to the English “enclosure movement” (and here) to put the stakes of this battle against algorithmic extraction into historical context…
If you were to ask me something like “What’s the most urgent task before us?” or “What counsel do you have to offer in this cultural moment?” I would say this:
Resist the enclosure of the human psyche.
Don’t misunderstand me. I’m sure there are other necessary and urgent tasks. But this would be my contribution to the conversation. I would be offering not only an imperative to pursue, but also, and perhaps more importantly, an analogy to clarify and interpret the techno-economic forces at play in a digitized society. Such analogies or concepts can be useful. They can crystalize a certain understanding of the world and catalyze action and resolve. They can be a rallying cry.
In any case, I’ll say it again: resist the enclosure of the human psyche.
Some of you may immediately intuit the force of the analogy, but I suspect it needs a little unpacking.
Here’s the short version: I’m drawing an analogy between a historical development known as the enclosure of the commons and the condition of the human psyche in the context of a digitized society. The enclosure of the commons is the name given to the centuries-long process by which lands available to the many were turned into a resource to be managed and extracted by the few. My claim is that structurally similar processes are unfolding with the aim of enclosing the human psyche and transforming it into a resource to be managed and extracted…
The longer version, which follows, unpacks that analogy and explains what the impact of “enclosing the human psyche” could– would likely– be. Sacasas concludes…
… The individual human psyche does not seem like a thing held in common. But, in fact, that presumption may itself be a symptom of the enclosure of the psyche, although there are certainly many other forces leading toward that same conclusion. What if the psyche were a thing held in common? That is to say, what if our purchase on reality and the emergence of the self depended on human relationships and communities? From this perspective, the enclosure of the human psyche deprives us of a common world, which yields an experience of solidarity and belonging.
I’ve elsewhere developed this point at greater length, but here I’ll only note Hannah Arendt’s warning that we are deprived of a “truly human life” when we are “deprived of the reality that comes from being seen and heard by others, to be deprived of an ‘objective’ relationship with them that comes from being related to and separated from them through the intermediary of a common world of things.”
That last bit about a common world of things, a material, not only virtual world, is key. The logic of enclosure seeks to lock us into a private virtual world of “bespoke realities,” thus excluding us from the common world of things that yields as well a public consciousness. As Arendt put it, “Only the experience of sharing a common human world with others who look at it from different perspectives can enable us to see reality in the round and to develop a shared common sense.”…
Eminently worth reading in full: “The Enclosure of the Human Psyche“
* Ivan Illich, “Silence is a commons” in In the Mirror of the Past (to which Sacasas alludes in the essay linked above)
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As we cosset commons, we might recall that it was on this date in 1867 that a bilateral treaty was signed effecting the sale of Alaska by Russia to the United States. It was ratified on May15 and American sovereignty took effect on October 18 of that year. The price for the 586,412 square miles that changed hands was $7.2 million in 1867 (equivalent to about $132 million in 2024), or about $0.02 per acre ($0.37 per acre in 2024).
Relevantly to the piece above, the land was and is largely commonly held, by the federal government, by the state, and by Native American tribes. Only roughly 1% of Alaska is in private hands. But that sliver is growing as the Trump Administration moves to “liquidate” federal real estate holdings (sell them to private owners) and in the meantime, licenses huge swathes of Alaska for oil and gas development, mineral extraction, and the infrastrucutre (roads, pipelines) needed to service them. Alaskans are worried.
The $7.2 million check used to pay for Alaska (source) #access #Alaska #AlaskaPurchase #commons #culture #enclosure #enclosureMovement #history #humanPsyche #LMSacasas #land #landAccess #landOwnership #landUse #ownership #politics #psyche #Russia -
Clean Enclosures, No Printing Necessary
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://hackaday.com/2026/03/29/clean-enclosures-no-printing-necessary/
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Clean Enclosures, No Printing Necessary
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://hackaday.com/2026/03/29/clean-enclosures-no-printing-necessary/
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ASUS Announces ROG Strix Aiolos, 20 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 SSD Enclosure
ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) today announced the ROG Strix Aiolos S…
#NewsBeep #News #Technology #20gbps #2242 #2260 #2280 #2x2 #3.2 #aiolos #announces #asus #AU #Australia #enclosure #gbps #GEN #https://www.techpowerup.com/345997/asus-announces-rog-strix-aiolos-20-gbps-usb-3-2-gen-2x2-ssd-enclosure #m.2 #NVMe #republicofgamers #rgb #ROG #SSD #ssds #strix #USB #usb3.2 #usb3.2gen2x2 #usb-c
https://www.newsbeep.com/au/460234/ -
The #Enclosure feedback loop or how LLMs sabotage existing programming practices by privatizing a public good:
“[…]something has been taken from the public. Not just the training data, but the public forums and practices that created this training data in the first place. […] LLM companies are now selling back to us something that used to be available for free.”
