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Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
@doctorow
Dec 12, 2022 • 30 tweets • 27 min read • Read on X
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Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: Orphaned neurological implants; and more!

Archived at: pluralistic.net/2022/12/12/uns…

#Pluralistic 1/ The staring eye of HAL9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Cente
My publisher @TorBooks and @Goodreads are drawing for a giveaway of advance copies of my next novel, "Red Team Blues," a Silicon Valley forensic accounting thriller about a cryptocurrency heist - If you're in the US or Canada, enter here to win a copy:

goodreads.com/giveaway/show/… 2/
Orphaned neurological implants: When the company that powers your nervous system decides to 'pivot.'

3/ Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wi
Hey look at this

* Merry Mixmas 2023 djriko.com/dls/DJ%20Riko%…

* Cyborgs on the Highways prospect.org/culture/books/…

* What actually is statistics? blog.piekniewski.info/2022/12/09/wha… 4/
#20yrsago Wardriver bumper-stickers staticusers.net/wardriver/

#15yrsago w00t is Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year for 2007 web.archive.org/web/2008050913…

#15yrsago RIP Anita Rowland, blogging pioneer and sf convention runner jackwilliambell.livejournal.com/198715.html 5/
#15yrsago Why do downloads make Amazon go crazy? theguardian.com/technology/200…

#15yrsago KnitML: standards-defined knitting patterns web.archive.org/web/2007121408…

#15yrsago Facebook’s Beacon was illegal as well as dumb laboratorium.net/archive/2007/1… 6/
#15yrsago Movable Type now under a free license movabletype.org/news/2007/12/m…

#15yrsago Neil Gaiman helps fan propose to girlfriend through book inscription web.archive.org/web/2007112922…

#15yrsago Terry Pratchett has rare, early-onset Alzheimer’s web.archive.org/web/2007121917… 7/
#10yrsago France remains America’s copyright crash-test dummy: about to ditch HADOPI, poised to adopt the dregs of SOPA instead techdirt.com/2012/12/10/fre…

#10yrsago Interlibrary Loan is awesome web.archive.org/web/2012122107… 8/
#10yrsago Understanding the NDAA, a US law that makes it possible to indefinitely detain people without charge or trial propublica.org/article/cuttin… 9/
#5yrsago How a maker with diabetes led an open source project to create a free-as-in-code artificial pancreas al.com/news/huntsvill… 10/
#5yrsago Independent auditor: Trump has made it impossible for students defrauded by predatory diploma mills to get their loans cancelled bbc.com/news/world-us-… 11/
#5yrsago Child molester Roy Moore said he wants to repeal all Constitutional amendments after the first ten, which would revive slavery and end votes for women and black people businessinsider.com/roy-moore-amen… 12/
#5yrsago German VW exec is going to US prison for seven years for his role in Dieselgate reuters.com/article/us-vol… 13/
#5yrsago A law-enforcement agency is trying to figure out who owns the bots that hacked the FCC’s Net Neutrality comment period, but the FCC is obstructing justice vice.com/en/article/wjz… 14/
#5yrsago 100 million Americans live in areas where every single ISP has admitted to violating net neutrality muninetworks.org/content/177-mi…

#5yrsago Security Planner: a peer-reviewed tool to help you figure out your personal digital security plan securityplanner.consumerreports.org 15/
#5yrsago Open primaries? Democratic establishment bars anyone who challenges an incumbent from using the party’s Votebuilder database wired.com/story/justice-… 16/
#5yrsago Your inbox is full of spyware-riddled emails that are both potentially very harmful to you and also very easy to disable wired.com/story/how-emai…

#5yrsago ACA isn’t enough: single-payer is a feminist issue jacobin.com/2017/12/single… 17/
Saturday's threads: Freedom of reach IS freedom of speech; and more!

18/ Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wi
My latest book is Chokepoint Capitalism (with @rgibli), nonfiction about monopoly and fairness in creative labor markets.

chokepointcapitalism.com

Signed copies available from @BookSoup:

booksoup.com/book/978080700… 19/
My latest novel is Attack Surface, a sequel to my bestselling Little Brother books, now in paperback, wherever books are sold.

Signed copies at @darkdel:

darkdel.com/store/p1840/Co… 20/
My ebooks and audiobooks (from @torbooks, @HoZ_Books, @mcsweeneys, @beaconPressBks et al) 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/ 21/
Upcoming appearances:

* Library Learning Experience/@ALALibrary (New Orleans), 1/27-30
2023.alaliblearnx.org/cory-doctorow

* Chokepoint Capitalism: Can It Be Defeated? (@UCLLaws), 2/1
ucl.ac.uk/laws/events/20…

* @Aus_Digital Copyright Forum (Canberra), 2/17:
digital.org.au/2022/11/08/doc… 22/
Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* Antitrust, Regulation and the Political Economy (Brussels), 3/2:
brusselsconference.com/registration 23/
Recent appearances:

* @dartsandletters:
dartsandletters.ca/2022/12/12/ep7…

* @bubtroubpodcast (Part 2)
bubbletroublepodcast.com/chokepoint-cap…

* Corporate Power (@privacyint)
media.privacyinternational.org/w/fKu4rZFZMCFZ…

* Taylor Swift, Ticketmaster, and Chokepoint Capitalism (@zingales)
capitalisnt.com/episodes/taylo… 24/
Recent appearances (cont'd):

* Plurality and democracy with @AudreyT (Liberté!)


* Anti-interoperability, vendor lock-in, and high switching costs (@ClearerPodcast)
clearerthinkingpodcast.com/episode/135 25/
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/2022/12/12/uns… 26/
If you're a @Medium subscriber, you can read these essays - as well as previews of upcoming magazine columns and early exclusives on doctorow.medium.com.

My latest Medium column is "Plato Would Ban Ad-Blockers: He was a dick."

doctorow.medium.com/plato-would-ba… 27/
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 28/
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… 29/
Today's top sources: Jeanne Kramer-Smyth (jeannekramersmyth.com). 30/

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More from @doctorow

Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Dec 16
We are about to get a "post-American internet," because we are entering a post-American *era* and a post-American *world*. Some of that is Trump's doing, and some of that is down to his predecessors.

1/ Uncle Sam staring into a funhouse mirror that has made him painfully thin. The reflection is wearing a Trump wig and has orange skin. He stands atop a map of the world that stretches to infinity. In the background is a shantytown with the TRUMP logomark rising in the sky over it.
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2025/12/16/k-s…

2/
When we think about the American century, we rightly focus on America's hard power - the invasions, military bases, arms exports, and CIA coups.

3/
Read 86 tweets
Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Dec 13
Look, I'm not trying to say that new technologies *never* raise gnarly new legal questions. But what I *am* saying is that a lot of the time, the "new legal challenges" raised by technology are somewhere between 95-100% bullshit.

1/ A modified FBI badge. It now reads 'Federal Wallet Investigators.' It is made out to 'Timothy J Shotspotter.' It is held in the three-fingered, gloved grip of a cartoon character. Around its edges, we see a cartoon room from a public domain Betty Boop cartoon.
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2025/12/13/unc…

2/
It's ginned up by none-too-bright tech bros and their investors, and then swallowed by regulators and lawmakers who are either so credulous they'd lose a game of peek-a-boo, or (likely) in on the scam.

3/
Read 68 tweets
Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Dec 9
I have a weird fascination with early-stage Bill Gates, after his mother convinced a pal of hers - chairman of IBM's board of directors - to give her son the contract to provide the operating system for the new IBM PC.

1/ A 1960s ad for IBM mainframes, featuring a woman in an office chair seated at a console, surrounded by large processing and storage units. It has been modified. A man in a business suit, impatiently checking his watch, looms out from between two of the cabinets. His head has been replaced with the glaring red eye of HAL 9000 from Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey.' The woman's head has been replaced with a hacker's hoodie. Both the woman and the man have been tinted red. Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommon...
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2025/12/09/tem…

2/
Gates and his pal Paul Allen tricked another programmer into selling them the rights to DOS, which they sold to IBM, setting Microsoft on the path to be one of the most profitable businesses in human history.

3/
Read 36 tweets
Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Nov 20
Well, this fucking *sucks*. A federal judge has decided that Meta is not a monopolist, and that its acquisitions of Instagram and Whatsapp were not an illegal bid to secure and maintain a monopoly:



1/ gizmodo.com/meta-learns-th…The classic Puck Magazine editorial cartoon entitled 'The King of All Commodities,' depicting John D Rockefeller as a man with grotesquely tiny body and a gigantic head, wearing a crown emblazoned with the names of the industrial concerns he owned. Rockefeller's head has been replaced with that of Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse avatar. The names of the industrial concerns have been replaced with the wordmarks for Scale AI, Instagram, Oculus and Whatsapp. The dollar-sign at the crown's pinnacle has been replaced with the Facebook 'f' logo. The chain around Rockefeller's neck sports the charm th...
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2025/11/20/if-…

2/
This is particularly galling because Mark Zuckerberg repeatedly, explicitly declared that these mergers were undertaken *to reduce competition*, which is the only circumstance in which pro-monopoly economists and lawyers say that mergers should be blocked.

3/
Read 55 tweets
Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Nov 18
Gary K Wolf is the author of a fantastic 1981 novel called *Who Censored Roger Rabbit?* which Disney licensed and turned into an equally fantastic 1988 live action/animated hybrid movie called *Who Framed Roger Rabbit?*

1/ The final scene of Disneyland's 'Roger Rabbit's Toontown Spin,' in which Roger Rabbit is deploying a pair of portable holes; the holes have been replaced with copyright symbols, which are partially cropped. Image: Ken Lund (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/kenlund/16775732643/ CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2025/11/18/im-…

2/
But despite the commercial and critical acclaim of the movie, Disney hasn't made any feature-length sequels.

3/
Read 52 tweets
Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Nov 8
A blockbuster Reuters report by Jeff Horwitz analyzes leaked internal documents that reveal that: 10% of Meta's gross revenue comes from ads for fraudulent goods and scams, and; the company knows it, and; they decided not to do anything about it, because...

1/ A tuxedoed figure dramatically shoveing greenish pigs into a tube, from whose other end vomits forth a torrent of packaged goods. He has the head of Mark Zuckerberg's 'metaverse' avatar. He stands upon an endless field of gold coins. The background is the intaglioed upper face of the engraving of Benjamin Franklin on a US$100 bill, roughed up to a dark and sinister hue.
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2025/11/08/fae…

2/
...The fines for facilitating this life-destroying fraud are far less than the expected revenue from helping to destroy its users' lives:



3/reuters.com/investigations…
Read 59 tweets

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