Pluralistic: 07 Sep 2022 We published an Audible Exclusive about the monopolistic abuses of Audible


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Parenting and Phones, an Empowering Approach

Wisdom from “Behind Their Screens: What Teens Are Facing (and Adults Are Missing)” by Emily Weinstein and Carrie James

DImage; Jiyoung kim/CC BY-SA 4.0 (modified); Cryteria/CC BY 3.0 (modified)

I am the father of a 14 year old, and it is wild. We have our good days and our bad ones, and the lockdown was hard for all of us, but I learn new stuff from my kid every single day.

I’ve been writing about the intersection of parenting and my kid’s digital life since she was two years old, and from the start, I’ve been clear on one thing: it’s impossible to completely control how my kid uses digital tech, and so the best I can hope for is to teach her to be as safe as possible, and to cultivate a trusting relationship with her so that when (not if) she gets in over her head, she’ll come to me so I can help her figure it out.

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Car Wars

The Real Trolley Problem

A Times Square traffic jam; all the cars’ windscreens have been filled with the menacing red eye of HAL9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey. The background has been filled with a Matrix “code-waterfall” effect.
joiseyshowaa/CC BY-SA 2.0 (modified); Cryteria/CC BY 3.0 (modified)

Author’s Note: This short story was originally commissioned by Deakin College as part of an AI ethics course; they have since take it down. This is its new home. For a nonfiction analysis of the problems set forth herein, see my Guardian column on the subject. Here’s an audio edition.

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Pluralistic: 24 Aug 2022 Moderna's Vaccine Apartheid


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Pluralistic: 23 Aug 2022 Tory UK is in serious trouble


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Pluralistic: 22 Aug 2022 Gmail will call the cops on you based on the content of your emails


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What is Chokepoint Capitalism?

Why copyright alone can’t unrig creative labor markets.

A middle school doorway. Three cigarette-smoking hoodlums block it from a small schoolboy, seen from behind, carrying a backpack.
Buffalo Police Department/Public Domain (modified); Erik B. Anderson/CC BY-SA 4.0 (modified)

Chokepoint Capitalism is my next book, co-written with the brilliant copyright scholar Rebecca Giblin. It’s a book about how the markets for creative labor were rigged, and how artists, fans, tinkerers, regulators and lawmakers can unrig them.

That second part is key: this isn’t just a book complaining about how tough things are for artists — it’s a book about how we can make things better.

There’s an obvious reason that our book’s focus on shovel-ready projects to put more money in artists’ pockets is important: you’d have to be a monster to prefer a world that underpays the writers, musicians, actors, and film and TV creators whose work heartens and delights you.

The cover for the Beacon Press edition of Chokepoint Capitalism.

But there’s another reason that this focus on fixing creative labor markets is so important: because copyright, the primary tool we’ve given creators to give them power over their labor, has actually made things worse.
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Pluralistic: 21 Aug 2022 The Shitty Technology Adoption Curve Reaches Apogee


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Pluralistic: 19 Aug 2022 Business Roundtable vs Humanity


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Pluralistic: 17 Aug 2022: Chokepoint Capitalism Kickstarter is live


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