Cory Doctorow: You Bought it, They Break It

"Enshittification" describes the systemic degradation of digital and physical products caused by corporate monopolies and policy environments that prioritize shareholder profit over user welfare. By exploiting legal loopholes like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, corporations restrict repair, enforce parts pairing, and eliminate competition, forcing consumers into closed ecosystems where quality declines and prices rise. This cycle is not an inevitable outcome of history but a result of specific, reversible policy choices that have allowed firms to become "too big to care." Restoring competitive markets requires muscular antitrust enforcement, as seen in historical precedents like the breakup of Standard Oil, to ensure companies remain small enough to regulate. Technological self-determination and active political engagement are essential to reversing this trend and reclaiming control over the tools and services that define modern life.