The foundation of this bullshit idea is intellectual property. Let's just go ahead and get rid of that, and let the people manage their network.
As I get older and live through this amazing ride, I am increasingly of the mind that the total abolition of "intellectual property" in all its manifest forms would not only be the saving move for humanity, but that it's more or less inevitable.
Climate change is going to put so much pressure on us to innovate very rapidly, and patents and copyright now form such obvious impediments, nobody except Disney is going to give a care about enforcing intellectual property within 20 years. These are the last desperate days of the old order trying to bury its spoils through centralisation and locking-down.
As an author, coder, inventor and creator I also see that generative "AI" - or rather the emergence of a portable semiotic/literary digital collective consciousness - will spell the end for ego-driven protection rackets that make us say "Think of the creators who need food!"
New tools will provide such abundance to creativity. We will still create of course, and enjoy it very much.
"The Internet" is such a fascinating story. Just at the point when we think all is lost, quite by surprise, and suddenly, we win. So in the 22nd century I imagine we will look back on the days when one couldn't freely share any digital artifact as we look back on slavery and witch hunting today.
And in that richness and abundance people will stop seeking out what is harmful to them to nurse their empty, depressive desperation and hopelessness. And those that profit from pushing misery at others will have no place the table.
I am only sad I won't get to live in that time - but watching the death of such rotten conceits as "intellectual property" and the "advertising industry" will be satisfaction enough.
For myself, if this plays out as I’ve described it just means it’s time to…go read a book or something, I don’t know.
That is their leverage, yes, but the tool at hand is copyright.