We should have the ability to run any code we want on hardware we own

I think we really need to discuss whether IP/copyright protections were a mistake. A LOT of our "modern" problems stem from IP protections. Whether that be not being able to own media, right to repair, DRM, censorship, a lot of monopolistic behavior, medicine prices, etc. And no wonder, IP protection is government sanctioned monopoly, and it is generally recognized that monopolies are bad; is it such a surprise that government enforced monopolies are bad?

Agreed. Monopoly is the killer of the market engine that powers the positive sum society we all benefit from.

Actually enforcing the anti-monopoly rules on the books would help, too.

And while we're making wishes, we could kill the VC-backed tech play by enforcing a digital version of anti-dumping laws.

With those rules in place, we'd see our market engine quite a bit more aligned with the social good.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumping_(pricing_policy)

Not really sure what this has to do with running your own code, though.

If a manufacturer makes a device locked down, it's the technological protections preventing you from running your own code. Not IP/copyright. Sometimes they get jailbroken but sometimes not.

Plenty of barriers around circumventing such obstacles hinge on IP legislation.

The protection period simply needs to be adjusted downward to reflect the faster pace of change. Rewarding 1700's technology pace today is asinine.

The original copyright from the 1700s was 14 years. You could file for an additional 14 years after that. It was extended starting in 1909 until the monstrosity it is today.

We're far from the promotion of useful arts and sciences and instead guarding the likeness of a cartoon mouse.

A lot of us get to live thanks to IP protections too. >90% of Hacker News readers I'd say, including myself. Software development is all about IP, most of art too, and medicine, and chemistry in general. Who wants to pay people to develop software, or even design new hardware or medicine if competitors can take all that hard work for free?

There may be alternatives to copyright and IP in general, but that would require dramatic changes to society, and maybe not in a good way. What you would get is essentially communism. Rejection of intellectual property is a form of rejection of private property, which is at the core of communism. Problem is, looking at past examples, it didn't work great.

but how would people be able to sell their crap on deviantart?

You can ignore laws on the dark web, but we still don't have dark web alternative phone OSes.

Except GrapheneOS, I suppose, but it's still riding the coattails of Android. Police in some places assume you're a drug dealer and arrest you if you have it, so it does qualify as "dark web".