Mek

Renting (e.g. a movie) can be a good option to increase access and lower upfront costs. However, it should be illegal to offer a product or service exclusively as a lease to exploit customers or strip them of rights essential to intended use, preservation, or civic value. mek.fyi/posts/the-le...

Leasing can expand access, but it should never be the only option. For copyright law to function as intended, there must also be a path to true ownership — even if time-limited — that restores the public’s ability to exercise rights like First Sale and preserve works under §108.

Renting (e.g. a movie) can be a good option to increase access and lower upfront costs. However, it should be illegal to offer a product or service exclusively as a lease to exploit customers or strip them of rights essential to intended use, preservation, or civic value. mek.fyi/posts/the-le...

Example 2: Evasion of the Public Domain. 17 U.S.C. § 302–305 sets a limit on copyright. But there is no requirement for publishers to release DRM-free version of lease-only material in a way that can enter the public domain. And breaking DRM is illegal via 17 U.S.C. § 1201.

Renting (e.g. a movie) can be a good option to increase access and lower upfront costs. However, it should be illegal to offer a product or service exclusively as a lease to exploit customers or strip them of rights essential to intended use, preservation, or civic value. mek.fyi/posts/the-le...

Leasing is problematic when it is used as a tool to capture markets and evade legal protections or societal responsibilities. Here are 3 examples.

It occurs to me how closely systems like ChatGPT approximate Niklas Luhmann's Zettelkasten -- essentially a shoebox of well labeled / organized notecards for synthesizing findings. Many workflows emerging to perform this novel synthesis.

Patrons could visit a page with products or services directly related to complimenting their queries. Both dystopian, by definition useful, and most inevitable.

It occurs to me how closely systems like ChatGPT approximate Niklas Luhmann's Zettelkasten -- essentially a shoebox of well labeled / organized notecards for synthesizing findings. Many workflows emerging to perform this novel synthesis.

I'd hope the patron would have to go/swipe to a special page/feed (similar to google news on android) as opposed to receiving "messages" or alerts or advertisements mid-conversation.

It occurs to me how closely systems like ChatGPT approximate Niklas Luhmann's Zettelkasten -- essentially a shoebox of well labeled / organized notecards for synthesizing findings. Many workflows emerging to perform this novel synthesis.

One opportunity for @anthropic.com and others are to evolve a system that not only answers questions when asked, but also (based on question history) generate a [e.g. Wiki of the day] feed of answers/news the patron may be interested in (as a news feed or learning tool).

In politics, when a bill faces difficulty passing, one strategy is to bundle the controversial bill as a “rider” to piggyback on more popular bills, as a method of compromise. This can result in a large, sometimes confused, bills — called Omnibus bills — that are sometimes thousands of pages long.

Such bills have another tactic which can be used to pass more easily. Once a year a "budget reconciliation" bill may be permitted which only requires a simple majority.

In politics, when a bill faces difficulty passing, one strategy is to bundle the controversial bill as a “rider” to piggyback on more popular bills, as a method of compromise. This can result in a large, sometimes confused, bills — called Omnibus bills — that are sometimes thousands of pages long.

A failure mode of omnibus bills is, as they get longer, they can become harder to evaluate or "code review". The current budget reconciliation, for example, is more than 1,000 pages long and contains over 100 sections and is too big to reasonably discuss. www.congress.gov/119/bills/hr...

Hi, I'm @mek.fyi and for 9 years I've run the @openlibrary.org at @archive.org, where 11M patrons world-wide rely on us to preserve society's library books, many which can't be accessed elsewhere. 🎲 Markets, politics, employment could change: I pledge to keep Aaron Swartz's Open Library OPEN 📖. Why?

This is why: the stock market could crash to zero, I could lose my job, and policies could make it harder for libraries to exist, and these would be all the more reasons to conscientiously advocate for and build towards the compassionate, inclusive world of library values everyone deserves.

Hi, I'm @mek.fyi and for 9 years I've run the @openlibrary.org at @archive.org, where 11M patrons world-wide rely on us to preserve society's library books, many which can't be accessed elsewhere. 🎲 Markets, politics, employment could change: I pledge to keep Aaron Swartz's Open Library OPEN 📖. Why?

The world deserves more reader privacy and open metadata, not vendor lock-in. @openlibrary.org is one open source alternative to amazon's goodreads that makes all its book data publicly available for free each month: openlibrary.org/developers/d...

Hi, I'm @mek.fyi and for 9 years I've run the @openlibrary.org at @archive.org, where 11M patrons world-wide rely on us to preserve society's library books, many which can't be accessed elsewhere. 🎲 Markets, politics, employment could change: I pledge to keep Aaron Swartz's Open Library OPEN 📖. Why?

Thousands of readers with qualifying print disabilities rely on platforms like @openlibrary.org because digital access is literally the only way they can read print books. These audiences shouldn't have to worry about a sudden change in policy potentially leaving them behind.

Hi, I'm @mek.fyi and for 9 years I've run the @openlibrary.org at @archive.org, where 11M patrons world-wide rely on us to preserve society's library books, many which can't be accessed elsewhere. 🎲 Markets, politics, employment could change: I pledge to keep Aaron Swartz's Open Library OPEN 📖. Why?

@openlibrary.org remains home to thousands of challenged books: openlibrary.org/collections/... Do I agree with all of them? No. But I believe in the value of protecting authors' free speech. I trust in my neighbors to reach healthy conclusions. And I believe in the power of books to get us there.

Hi, I'm @mek.fyi and for 9 years I've run the @openlibrary.org at @archive.org, where 11M patrons world-wide rely on us to preserve society's library books, many which can't be accessed elsewhere. 🎲 Markets, politics, employment could change: I pledge to keep Aaron Swartz's Open Library OPEN 📖. Why?

Lots of mushrooms on our hike in the white mountains.

Been a while since the first two decentralized web summits. Fun to catch up on the latest news about Solid w/ Tim