Cory Doctorow on digital rights, enshittification, and tech criticism.
Today's links How an AI moratorium can save AI bosses: If you can't impose switching costs, just eliminate the competition. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Flash Worms; This Film is Not Yet Rated; Libdem copyright sabotage; Religion…
Today's links Everybody pees: Even Jeff Bezos. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Zune won't play Microsoft files; Papercraft 1:1 Mustang; Third gender for Aussie passports; France hacked Canada; EC v links; Welcome to Night Vale; Univ…
Today's links But do you use keyboard shortcuts?: AI people are WEIRD. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: "Changeling"; Sony Rootkit vs CD drives; Google's scumbag lobbyists; NJ's e-voting coverup; Spying sex toys; Scott Walker dark mo…
Today's links LLMs are real, AI is fake: No, it didn't "go rogue." Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Why 9/11 Means We Must Support My Politics; Blogs x 9/11; Jimmy Wales v Britannica's EiC; Hollywood astroturfs Australia; Agents v qu…
Today's links Inefficiency is bad, actually: Now, "resiliency" on the other hand… Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Canada's DMCA; Socialism x Pledge of Allegiance; Hate the player and the game; Making Light's 9/11; 9/11 survivor regi…
Today's links Anti-vax/anti-trust: Remembering saves lives. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Disneyland prisoner; HOAs v xeriscaping; Copyright Office x regulatory capture; The women held a vote; Open licenses v uncopyrightable subje…
Today's links How corporate America built a better Roach Motel: Hostages beat customers every day. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: 3-hole punches; Warner Bros v Warner Bros; Privacy wars get worse; "Weapons of Math Destruction"; HK…
Today's links Google skates: Another federal judge loses a game of peek-a-boo. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Memory-hacking ads; "Dzur"; NZ Ministry of DRM; Canadians v looking at the internet; Advice for self-publishers; Advice f…
Today's links Amazon achieves enshittification inception: Cheating on your fraud is a hell of a thing. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Electrolite is back; Mafia rules; Aaronsw on Wikipedia; Proctorio's memory hole. Upcoming appeara…
Today's links Preparing for a post-Trump internet: You'd better hope it's also a post-American internet. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Barnum and Bailey v journalism; Wired's Wikipedia article is a wiki; Singapore's national wifi;…
Today's links Unpermissioned research: Fighting Trump means preserving the internet, which means scraping. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Leaked advanced PalmOS device specs; Stalwart workers; "I, Rowboat"; SMS uprising; Facebook v…
Today's links The age of disinvention: 🟥1️⃣2️⃣0️⃣0️⃣🟥1️⃣2️⃣0️⃣0️⃣🟥️1️⃣2️⃣0️⃣0️⃣🟥1️⃣2️⃣0️⃣0️⃣🟥1️⃣2️⃣0️⃣0️⃣🟥1️⃣2️⃣0️⃣0️⃣🟥 Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Metacrap; CmdrTaco retires; Chalk memorial for Jack Layton; By all means…
Today's links How Canada can help Americans and defeat America: True Carneyism has never been tried. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Brazil v AIDS drug patents; TSA v gel-bras; After the Siege (Russian); Names are hard; Layton's las…
Today's links Born on technology's third base: Material forces shape life-chances. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Glue; iPods v unions; RIP Jack Layton; Gibson on cities; Britain's sweatshop for terminally ill help-hcalls; NYPL's o…
Today's links The actual epistemic crisis: AI's assault on reality is an opportunistic infection. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Disney goths; Running a con room party; Equation Group's fuggly sourcecode; "Bubble"; "The Weight." Up…
Today's links The ordinariness of evil: Stop selling AI (bad). Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Dot-crash bumwad; AP v fair use; Nym Wars; What's ctrl-F? Pentagon lost $6.5T in a year; Voter ID is voter suppression; Become unoptimiza…
Today's links IP can't save you from AI: Property rights cannot substitute for labor rights and privacy rights. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Flying Brits v brown people; Probability neglect; Law v "enhanced patdowns"; Onion says…
Today's links Jennifer Jenkins' 'Music Copyright, Creativity, and Culture': The definitive textbook (with comics!). Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Hair-gel bombers v bras; Hair-gel bombers v chemistry; AOL digs for spammer's platin…
Today's links Capital formation: Going legit means going mainstream. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: London Copyfighters x Speaker's Corner; TSA v lipstick; Long Beach v photographers; China x David Cameron's internet censorship; Mc…
Today's links Model collapse: Living in a world that's trained on itself. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Wired v Dutch hackers; NYT v DMCA; Hair gel terrorist threat does not exist; AT&T merger is a screwjob; Smart cities are stupi…
Today's links Surveillance vs guillotines: Someone's gonna fleece these rubes, why not me? Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: DeCSS; Warhol Worm; Camgirls x Amazon wishlists; 2021 State of Tech (in 2001); RIAA v grieving family; Stasi…
Today's links The bureaucratic AI arms-race is mutually assured destruction: The only way to win is not to play. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Seymour Cray's tunnels; War on moisture; $5 wrench cryptanalysis; Nauru files; People's…
Today's links Digital sewer socialism: Mamdani's Public Interest Technologists are what DOGE should have been. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Robot garage takes hostages; Thermostat ransomware; Correlate audience exhalations; Judge…
Today's links Eternal Sloptember: Mark Zuckerberg and the fantasy of social media without socializing. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Delany x The Onion; Duran Duran x Second Life; Spammers x blog pings; Privacywashing v Doordash;…
Today's links Google is a scammer's paradise: The internet's absentee landlord. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS; EZ realistic corpse; $300m login button; Short Uber; Who goes AI? Upcoming appearances…
Today's links Post-American compute for a post-American Internet: Building cooperative human rights computing infrastructure in Puerto Rico, the EU, Canada and Mexico. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Urine Luck; Germany v pornoscann…
Today's links Dualism: Why not both? Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: UK's Great Firewall falls; Mint the coins; Virtual pets v DRM; Getty copyfrauds 47,000 photos; Net Mexico-US illegal migration is zero; Build a wall (around Trump…
Today's links Why businesses lie about AI: Humoring the boss all the way into bankruptcy. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Vinge x NYT; Syklarov x publishers; Human hair castles; Gingrich's bot army; Accessibility v Web DRM; David By…
Today's links Better to beg forgiveness: Don't ring the doorbell at the house of no unless you absolutely must. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: RIP Poul Anderson; P2P at PC Forum; Waitress handed her own stolen ID by carded diner; P…
Today's links The stupidest imaginable excuses for surveillance pricing: Since 1850, San Francisco's Chamber of Commerce has been pissing in our mouths and calling it rain. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: RIP Wau Holland; Diebold vo…