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Apple's most valuable intangible asset isn't its patents or copyrights - it's an army of people who believe that using products from a $2.89 trillion multinational makes them members of an oppressed religious minority whose identity is coterminal with the interests of Apple's shareholders.
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/12/youre-holding-it-wrong/#if-dishwashers-were-iphones
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They ran a consultation on this measure, and the responses overwhelmingly rejected it (6138 submissions opposed to the measure, 54 in support!). They pressed ahead anyway:
https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2010/04/copycon-final-numbers/
When the public demanded an explanation for this, Moore said that opponents of the measure were "radical extremists":
https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/copyright-debate-turns-ugly-1.898216
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This was a bridge too far. I'm a bestselling Canadian author whose copyright-related income is royalties, not industry campaign contributions. The Heritage Minister branding me a "radical extremist" got my goat, so I picked a fight with him on Twitter, where he unwisely took the bait:
https://web.archive.org/web/20130407101911if_/http://eaves.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/Conversations%20between%20@doctorow%20and%[email protected]
Moore's responses were straight out of the comments from "If iPhones Were Dishwashers." Quoth the Minister: "Don't use Mac. There are other options out there."
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Remember: the only people who could use an alternative iOS store are Apple customers. Moore - a Minister from the Conservative Party - went on record saying that if you want to use your private, personal property in ways that the corporation that manufactured it objects to you, the government should step in to defend the corporation from you.
This is not the property-worshiping, market-based ideology the Conservative Party claims to support.
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@[email protected] this is the same mistake made when people misconstrue “Property is theft.” An iPhone is a possession, not property. Apple shares are property.