Nothing in Commons: the end of digital collective ownership?

I'm sharing a new text where I try to summarize some older thoughts that have been slowly fermenting in the past years regarding the dead-end in which the digital commons have landed. I discuss the discomfort of their growing ambivalence, and the incredible difficulty, but urgency to move forward beyond this concept and rethink collective objectives in relation to digital tools and practices.

It is the follow-up of a copyleft/copyright/copywhat licensing workshop I gave at https://spookstad.boo. Amsterdam Alternative asked me to contribute an essay on the digital commons based on some of the topics discussed in the workshop for their web docu on collective ownership.

The text is also available in Dutch, thanks to a translation by Menno Grootveld from Starfish Books.

Illustration: @l03s

https://www.collectiefeigendom.nl/en/ownership/digital-collective-ownership

#commons #digitalcommons #freesoftware #opensource #creativecommons #licenses #freeculture #collective

West Virginia University: Knee Regulatory Research Center Releases Occupational Licensing Law Research Project Database to Study U.S. Licensure in Unprecedented Depth and Detail. “Today, the Knee Regulatory Research Center—a nonpartisan research center focused on labor, health, and regulatory frontiers—announced the release of the Occupational Licensing Law Research Project Database […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/10/23/west-virginia-university-knee-regulatory-research-center-releases-occupational-licensing-law-research-project-database-to-study-u-s-licensure-in-unprecedented-depth-and-detail/

[News] “Case Filed at Germany’s Top Court to Challenge Arms Exports to Israel”

by Palestine Chronicle Staff

@palestine
@Palestine @palestine@lemmy.ml
@uk_politics @BBC5Live
@BBCRadio4
@BBCNews
@UKLabour

“The constitutional complaint is directed against #German #export #licenses for #tank #transmissions manufactured by the company #Renk.Tanks in which these transmissions are installed are being used extensively in Gaza”

https://www.palestinechronicle.com/case-filed-at-germanys-top-court-to-challenge-arms-exports-to-israel/

#Press #Gaza #Palestine #Germany #Israel #Genocide

State #Barcode Laws

Digital driver’s #licenses — have a big problem that almost nobody is addressing: the likelihood that once they make it very frictionless to share our #ID, we are likely to be bombarded by requests from all quarters to prove who we are. That’s a huge threat to our #privacy. There is, however, a set of existing laws in the states that point to a solution for this problem: regulations governing who may scan the bar codes on physical #IDs.
#tracking

https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/state-barcode-laws

Public repo with text of a "Read Only License" and nothing else in the repo. So, can anyone else use that license text in their project? 🤔

(No license info -> no license grant, including no downloading, but would it kill to include a LICENSE.md?)

https://github.com/RayPS/Read-Only-License

#technology #licenses #conundrum

https://all3dp.com/2/the-state-of-open-source-3d-printing/

I didn't know #Creality was violating the #gpl this badly again...

I thought they learned their lesson last time.

Maybe countries should start banning products that violate #licenses the same way they do when #patents are violated.

A license is not worth the paper / disk it's written on if there's no enforcement behind it.

#linux #3d #3dprinting #opensource

Had I knew this before hand, I would not have given them my money...
I like the printer, but I would have taken a different company.

#lessonlearned

Here's how to get your VMware Home Lab licenses after passing the VCP-VCF exam.

https://thedxt.ca/2025/09/vmware-home-lab-licensing/

#HomeLab #VMware #licenses #VCF #vExpert