Today's links
- The battle for Ring Zero: The esoteric argument I have been having with myself since 2002.
- This day in history: 2002, 2017, 2021
- Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading
Author: Cory Doctorow
Pluralistic: 29 Jan 2022
Today's links
- No, payday lenders aren't nice guys: Won't someone think of the poor usurers?
- The Right to Repair: A stupendous new book on a very urgent subject.
- This day in history: 2002, 2017, 2021
- Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading
Pluralistic: 28 Jan 2022
Today's links
- California's chance for universal health care: It would save taxpayers trillions.
- This day in history: 2002, 2007, 2012, 2017, 2021
- Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading
Pluralistic: 27 Jan 2022
Today's links
- As stocks tumble, wealthy speculators bid up house prices: The long-run effect of Obama's choice to bail out lenders, not borrowers.
- Cops' imaginary fears send addicts to real jail: The deadly myth of the fentanyl contact high.
- This day in history: 2002, 2007, 2012, 2017, 2021
- Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading
A Bug in Early Creative Commons Licenses Has Enabled a New Breed of Superpredator
Copyleft trolls, robosigning, and Pixsy.
Here’s a supreme irony: the Creative Commons licenses were invented to enable a culture of legally safe sharing, spurred by the legal terror campaign waged by the entertainment industry, led by a literal criminal predator who is now in prison for sex crimes.
But because of a small oversight in old versions of the licenses created 12 years ago, a new generation of legal predator has emerged to wage a new campaign of legal terror.
To make matters worse, this new kind of predator specifically targets people who operate in good faith, only using materials that they explicitly have been given permission to use.
What a mess.
Continue reading "A Bug in Early Creative Commons Licenses Has Enabled a New Breed of Superpredator"
The Internet Heist (Part III)
We are family
Note: This is Part III in a series; Part I is here, Part II is here.
Even today, I can’t tell if the entertainment execs and their tech collaborators that I sparred with in the DRM wars were brilliant schemers or overconfident fools.
When these men — almost all men — set out to create laws that would give their corporations a collective veto over which programs all computers could run, and which real-world data could be captured by computers, were they really doing it all for the sake of controlling how we watch TV? Or did they grasp just how this power over our digital tools would translate into control over our lives in an increasingly digital era?
I still don’t know. It’s easy to believe in unlimited corporate hubris, but it’s just as easy to believe in unlimited corporate foolishness. What’s more, it’s possible that some of the players were along for the ride, while others had a very precise understanding of the stakes.
What were those stakes?
Well, for starters, how about the definition of “the family.”
Pluralistic: 10 Jan 2022
Today's links
- Personnel are policy: The Dems may do something to materially improve voters' lives. Maybe.
- Podcasting "Science fiction is a Luddite Literature": My last pre-op podcast.
- This day in history: 2002, 2007, 2012, 2017, 2021
- Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading
The Internet Heist (Part II)
From broadcast flags to the analog hole
Note: This is Part II in a series; Part I is here, Part III is here.
Last week, I began the story of the Broadcast Flag, a law that would make it illegal to build a general-purpose computer unless it conformed to a set of privately negotiated restrictions. The law had been promised by Billy Tauzin, then a lavishly corrupt Congressman, and its contours were being hammered out in an inter-industry body called the Broadcast Protection Discussion Group (BPDG), convened by the MPAA and attended by movie studios, TV studios, broadcasters, consumer electronics companies, and PC companies.
Pluralistic: 07 Jan 2022
Today's links
- Jackpot watch: How the klept operates in the UK.
- This day in history: 2007, 2012, 2017, 2021
- Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading
Pluralistic: 05 Jan 2022
Today's links
- Hospital beds are a monopoly: The casket to hospital bed monopoly pipeline.
- This day in history: 2007, 2017, 2021
- Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading