Over the last 3 days, everyone’s been talking about how mind-blowing the new Black Mirror episode “Common People” is — and honestly, what hits me the hardest is that it’s not some far-off dystopia. It’s happening right now. Apple systems, Adobe subscriptions, Microsoft Licensing, Google indexing…
As usual, I’m mixing the fun with some serious in this post — diving into how the new Black Mirror episode showcases the power of capitalism in the lens of intellectual property, and why anti-competition laws are so important to prevent monopolies from taking over.
Snapshot of ‘Common People’
Spoiler alert for those who haven’t watched Black Mirror’s “Common People”. The episode revolves around a Big Tech company called Rivermind, which offers a transplant that lets your brain/conscience live in a new body after death, essentially giving you a second shot at life.
But here’s the catch: the user ended up in a subscription-based pricing system, where things start to go wrong if you don’t keep with the fees or get a “software update”.
Real Life Example: Adobe Creative Cloud
What’s happening in Black Mirror isn’t just fiction — it’s already happening in real life. Companies use IP to create demand and raise prices, especially when there are no competitors around (or when they buy out competitors).
One example of this is Adobe Creative Cloud, where they control the IP for industry-standard creative software like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere Pro. These tools are essential for many professionals and creatives, but because Adobe owns the IP, no one else can legally copy or offer the same features exactly — giving them a monopoly over their own formats (e.g., PSD files).
Before 2013, Adobe sold the software as one-time purchases, but then later on they switched to a subscription-only model. Now, users must pay monthly or annually for software they once owned. To make it worse, subscription fees have increased over the years, and there’s no cheaper official option out there. Adobe’s pricing model is a perfect reflection of capitalism, and closely mirrors what we see in Common People.
Intellectual Property as a Tool for Capitalism
But it’s not just about software – in some cases, companies may not technically “own” your data, but they own the platform where it’s stored. That means you’re still stuck relying on them, trapped in an ecosystem of potentially endless subscription fees — unless you’re ready to give up the lifestyle they’ve built for you.
This actually happened to one of my clients recently, where they signed an agreement with a Chinese software company to drive more data to their website. IP Clauses in the agreement allowed this company to essentially “hold your data hostage.”
While they didn’t technically own the data, they imposed a whopping subscription fee on the platform that holds it. And what good is your data if it’s locked away and you can’t access it? It forces you into a terrible position: pay through the roof or lose access to your own data.
Personally, this is why I’ve resisted subscribing to services like iCloud or Google Photos. The theory is that your photos will only increase with age, and the storage space you need just keeps getting bigger. And what happens when “cloud storage” becomes scarce? Boom! — prices shoot up. There is a real chance that I may not be able to access my own memories unless I can keep affording it…Bleak world.
Anti-Competition Laws
Of course, the movie was somewhat exaggerated. I don’t believe any government would actually allow a company to gain so much power that it becomes a literal threat to human survival. Most countries do have competition laws which prevents companies from selling products that monopolizes the market (to the point where people are forced to pay or die).
But the real question is: how robust are these laws when it comes to dealing with what is now seen as normal in today’s capitalist world? I believe a lot of people buys into the idea that we just have to “afford the upgrade”, no matter the cost. (Thankfully, anti-competitive conduct also includes price-fixing, which is when two or more companies agree to raise prices together.)
As far as I’m concerned, in Malaysia, the Competition Act 2010 doesn’t directly prohibit high subscription fees like those charged by Apple, Netflix, Adobe of Google Cloud – but it does provide some framework to assess whether a company’s behaviour crosses the line into anti-competitive conduct or abuse of market dominance.
Conclusion
Black Mirror‘s ‘Common People’ has been a real wake-up call, showing how fast AI is outpacing our ability to keep up. Even I, as a millennial, find it hard to stay in the loop — let alone the Boomers? If we’re not paying attention, we might just sleepwalk into a future we didn’t sign up for.