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Cory Doctorow

13 Apr, 20 tweets, 14 min read

Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: Jackpot; Bill Gates will kill us all; What "IP" means; Data-brokerages vs the world; and more!

Archived at: pluralistic.net/2021/04/13/pub…

#Pluralistic

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Tonight, I'm giving a workshop in collaboration with Phoenix's Changing Hands bookstore: "All the Teachable Things I Know About Writing":

changinghands.com/event/april202…

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https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1381805326681341958

Jackpot: Inequality sucks...for everyone.

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1381805326681341958

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1382022094276325378

Bill Gates will kill us all: Elite philanthropy created vaccine apartheid.

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1382022094276325378

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1382027584305733634

What "IP" means: Control over customers, critics and competitors.

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1382027584305733634

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1382032923658919937

Data-brokerages vs the world: The public-private partnership from hell.

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1382032923658919937

#15yrsago NOLA mayoral candidate uses photo of Disneyland New Orleans Square web.archive.org/web/2006041421…

#10yrsago Historical first look into the Fed’s bailout payments reveals breathtaking multi-trillion-dollar corruption rollingstone.com/politics/polit…

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#5yrsago How corporate America’s lobbying budget surpassed the combined Senate and Congress budget theatlantic.com/business/archi…

#5yrsago Panama Papers reveal offshore companies were bagmen for the world’s spies yahoo.com/news/panama-pa…

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#5yrsago Panama Papers: Mossack Fonseca law offices raided by Panama authorities reuters.com/article/us-pan…

#5yrsago Piracy dooms motion picture industry to yet another record-breaking box-office year torrentfreak.com/piracy-fails-t…

9/

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1381637732229730314

Yesterday's threads: Fraud-resistant election-tech; Big Tech's secret weapon is switching costs, not network effects; Podcasting How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism; and more!

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1381637732229730314

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@washingtonpost

My latest novel is Attack Surface, a sequel to my bestselling Little Brother books. @washingtonpost called it "a political cyberthriller, vigorous, bold and savvy about the limits of revolution and resistance."

Get signed books from @darkdel: darkdel.com/store/p1840/Av…

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My book "How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism" is a critique of Big Tech connecting conspiratorial thinking to the rise of tech monopolies (proposing a way to deal with both) is now out in paperback:

onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy…

Signed copies here:
darkdel.com/store/p2024/Av…

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@torbooks

My ebooks and audiobooks (from @torbooks, @HoZ_Books, @mcsweeneys, and others) are for sale all over the net, but I sell 'em too, and when you buy 'em from me, I earn twice as much and you get books with no DRM and no license "agreements."

craphound.com/shop/

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Upcoming appearances:

* Interop: Self-Determination vs Dystopia (FITC), Apr 19-21, fitc.ca/presentation/i…

* Book launch for Bruce Sterling's Robot Artists & Black Swans (Book People), Apr 27, bookpeople.com/event/virtual-…

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Recent appearances:

* Right to Repair, Monopolies, and Solarpunk

* The surveillance state, digital monopolies, and why we should be worried (Podsongs)
anchor.fm/podsongs/episo…

* Conspiracy Theories (Utopian Horizons):
soundcloud.com/utopianhorizon…

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My first picture book is out! It's called Poesy the Monster Slayer and it's an epic tale of bedtime-refusal, toy-hacking and monster-hunting, illustrated by Matt Rockefeller. It's the monster book I dreamt of reading to my own daughter.

pluralistic.net/2020/07/14/poe…

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You can also follow these posts as a daily blog at pluralistic.net: no ads, trackers, or data-collection!

Here's today's edition: pluralistic.net/2021/04/13/pub…

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If you prefer a newsletter, subscribe to the plura-list, which is also ad- and tracker-free, and is utterly unadorned save a single daily emoji. Today's is "🧓🏾". Suggestions solicited for future emojis!

Subscribe here: pluralistic.net/plura-list

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Are you trying to wean yourself off Big Tech? Follow these threads on the #fediverse at @pluralistic@mamot.fr.

Here's today's edition: mamot.fr/@pluralistic/1…

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Today's top sources: Naked Capitalism (nakedcapitalism.com).

eof/

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The FCC long epitomized "regulatory capture" - an agency whose leadership worked a revolving door with the industry it oversees; a crooked beat-cop who served as willing accomplice to decades of fraud, leaving Americans to struggle with overpriced, underperforming broadband.

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There have been many terrible FCC chairs and commissioners, but even in that crowded, manure-strewn field, one man stands out as the worst FCC chair in American history, @AjitPai, the former Verizon lawyer who became Trump's FCC chairman.

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13 Apr

When I give talks about surveillance in Silicon Valley, techies will say, "Well, I don't care if Google gets my data to show me better ads, but the NSA is full of low-IQ sociopaths who couldn't get a job in tech."

1/

When I speak in the Beltway, govies say, "I don't care about Uncle Sam gathering data on me - the USG already knows all about me. But those grifters in Silicon Valley would sell their mothers for a nickel."

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What neither gets is that private surveillance is public surveillance - and vice-versa. Why do governments exercise forbearance in regulating the obviously harmful, toxic surveillance industry? Because they rely on raiding private data to do mass surveillance on a budget.

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Cory Doctorow

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13 Apr

@ProjectReboot

Today, @ProjectReboot pubished "Unfair Use," an updated version of "IP," my September 2020 column for @locusmag, which I consider to be the most important piece I have written in my 13 years as a Locus columnist.

thereboot.com/unfair-use-ant…

1/

In the article, I describe how the copyleft/commons/floss world has spent decades fighting a losing battle to get people to stop saying "IP," on the grounds that copyright, trademark and patents aren't property, nor are they similar enough to group them under a single banner.

2/

Instead, copyfighters insist that people either refer to specific laws ("copyright," "trademark," etc), or, if these disparate concepts MUST be grouped, let them be referred to using the original term-of-art, "authors' monopolies" or "creators' monopolies."

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Read 18 tweets

Cory Doctorow

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13 Apr

2.5b people in Earth's 130 poorest countries have not been vaccinated. The 85 poorest countries won't be vaccinated until 2023. The humanitarian cost is unforgivable - and self-defeating, as each infected person is a potential source of new strains.

who.int/director-gener…

1/

How the actual fuck did this happen?

What happened to the early pledges by governments, the WHO, public health experts and leading research institutions to create global cooperation in vaccine development, eschewing patents and secrecy so that we could rescue our species?

2/

That dream was smashed.

Many people helped create our #VaccineApartheid, the single individual who did the most to get us here is Bill Gates, through his highly ideological "philanthropic" foundation, which exists to push his pitiless doctrine of unfettered monopoly.

3/

Read 37 tweets