Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Feb 9, 2023 26 tweets 26 min read Read on X
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: Copyright won't solve creators' Generative AI problem; and more!

Archived at: pluralistic.net/2023/02/09/ai-…

#Pluralistic 1/ A poster for the 1933 movie 'The Monkey's Paw.' The fainting
I'm in #Australia, touring my book #ChokepointCapitalism* with my co-author, @rgibli. We're doing a remote event for #NZ on Feb 13. Next are #Melbourne (Feb 14), #Sydney (Feb 15) and #Canberra (Feb 16/17). More tickets just released for Sydney!

chokepointcapitalism.com 2/
Copyright won't solve creators' Generative AI problem: The machine-learning monkey's paw.

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

* AI psychosis blog.piekniewski.info/2023/02/07/ai-…

* White Collar Crime Risk Zones whitecollar.thenewinquiry.com/#9q8yyzf (h/t @JWZ) 4/
#20yrsago etoy vs. eToys: anarcho-Dadaist clash of the titans liketv.com/leaving/

#10yrsago #PACER capers: the sordid story of America’s for-pay lawbooks arstechnica.com/tech-policy/20… 5/
#10yrsago Beige politics: unbeatable bland politicos advocating “beige policies that nobody wants” antipope.org/charlie/blog-s…

#10yrsago Publisher launches $3,000,000 suit against academic librarian who criticized its books leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2013/02/s… 6/
#10yrsago Hobbit producers to #NewZealand: if you tell people how we got our sweet tax/labor deal, no one will want to make movies in your country nzherald.co.nz/nz/threats-fly… 7/
#5yrsago @eff tells the @CopyrightOffice: we don’t know how to make voice assistants better, but here’s how not to make them worse eff.org/deeplinks/2018… 8/
#5yrsago Cable operator Fidelity Communications admits it that secretly created the fake-grassroots “Stop City-Funded Internet” campaign to kill Missouri municipal net theregister.com/2018/02/07/fid… 9/
#5yrsago Chinese transit cops deploy face-recognition glasses to spot indebted people, oppressed ethnic/religious minorities and criminals businessinsider.com/china-police-u… 10/
#5yrsago Tennessee sheriff who ordered deputies to kill driver of slow-moving car and gloated over his corpse faces excessive force lawsuit theguardian.com/us-news/2018/f… 11/
#5yrsago Your #SmartTV is trivial to hack and leaks your personal information like crazy unless you disable all its useful features consumerreports.org/televisions/sa… 12/
#5yrsago A pair of leaked powerpoints reveal the earliest-known evidence of the Republican #gerrymandering plan that gave us Trump salon.com/2018/02/06/how… 13/
#5yrsago Leaked presentation from AI snake-oil salesmen to AAA game company promises horrific, dystopian manipulation of players to drain their wallets techpowerup.com/240655/leaked-…

#1yrago UK #Tories want a national database of porn-viewing habits pluralistic.net/2022/02/08/wal… 14/
#1yrago Wall Street's #landlord business is turning every rental into a slum pluralistic.net/2022/02/08/wal…

#1yrago Pixels of You: A illustrated tale of love and photos pluralistic.net/2022/02/08/wal… 15/
Yesterday's threads: The Collective Intelligence Institute; and more!

16/
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… 17/
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… 18/
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/ 19/
Upcoming appearances:

* Chokepoint Capitalism: A Kiwi Perspective, 2/13
…alism-a-kiwi-perspective.lilregie.com/booking/attend…

* Future of Arts/Culture/Tech, @ACMI, (#Melbourne), 2/14
acmi.net.au/whats-on/in-co…

* @statelibrarynsw (#Sydney), 2/15
sl.nsw.gov.au/events/chokepo… 20/
Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* ANU/@canberratimes Meet The Author (#Canberra), 2/16
anu.edu.au/events/in-conv…

* @Aus_Digital Copyright Forum (#Canberra), 2/17:
digital.org.au/2022/11/08/doc…

* #Antitrust, Regulation & Political Economy (#Brussels), 3/2:
brusselsconference.com/registration 21/
Recent appearances:

* How popular movements can topple Big Tech (@tninstitute)
tni.org/en/podcast/how…

* A theory of how internet platforms die (@Marketplace Tech)
marketplace.org/shows/marketpl…

* Graeber's Pirate Enlightment (Everyday Anarchism)
pca.st/w58ald39 22/
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/2023/02/09/ai-… 23/
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 "Small Government: refs have to be more powerful than players"

doctorow.medium.com/small-governme… 24/
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 25/
Are you trying to wean yourself off Big Tech? You can read my work elsewhere, but it is now a #TwitterCrime to tell you how. Please visit my site, pluralistic.net, for links to find me on less-unhinged places (I can only imagine that my days here are numbered). 26/

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More from @doctorow

Apr 11
It's been more than a decade in the making, but Facebook - or, if you prefer, Meta - is going on trial for antitrust violations, with the highest possible stakes and the worst possible evidence (for Facebook).

1/ A Gilded Age courtroom scene depicting a judge high atop the bench wagging a disapproving finger at an expensively dressed figure in the foreground. The foreground character has lost his top hat, which sits on the floor, as he roots through a breifcase on the defendant's table. The foreground figure's head has been replaced with the head of Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse avatar. The figure's right hand has been replaced with a Facebook 'thumbs up' icon. Hanging from the judge's bench like an unfurled scroll is a sheet of paper; the contents of this sheet have been replaced with the first page ...
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/2025/04/11/it-…

2/
The Big Tech On Trial blog was started to follow the Google antitrust case, the biggest antitrust case of the century, which was barely noticed by most of the press.

3/
Read 80 tweets
Apr 10
It's hard to remember now, but for more than three years under Biden, it was possible to read the headlines and feel your government was taking big, decisive action to tame the corporate behemoths that rip you off, maim you on the job, and undermine our democracy.

1/ A massive Earth Day demonstration in 1970, with a speaker in the foreground, his back to the camera, standing at a podium. The image has been modified: the speaker has been tinted green, the audience has been tinted red. Between the speaker and the audience marches a gleeful skeleton, pounding on a snare drum with drumsticks made of human femur-bones. The skeleton wears a top-hat. It is haloed in flaring light.  Image: umseas (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/snre/34605145761/  CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/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/2025/04/10/sol…

2/
Antitrust surge under Biden was remarkable: a sustained, organized, effective policy to support the interests of the majority of people against the interests of a cohort of ultra-wealthy wreckers and looters. According to political science, that surge is impossible.

3/
Read 66 tweets
Apr 2
It's not that the Republicans and the Democrats are the same...obviously. But for decades - since Clinton - the Dems have sided with neoliberal economics, just like their Republican counterparts.

1/ The ruins of the Temple of Jupiter, taken in the late 18th century, overlooking a stretch Lebanon. It has been emblazoned with the 1970s-era logo for the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. Before it stands a figure taken from an early 1900s illustrated bible, depicting a Hebrew priest making an offering to the golden calf at the foot of Mt Sinai. The priest's head has been replaced with the head of Milton Friedman. The calf has been adorned with a golden top-hat and a radiating halo of white light.
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/2025/04/02/me-…

2/
So the major differences between the two related to overt discrimination, to the exclusion of the economic policies that immiserated working people, with the worst effects landing on racial minorities, women, and gender minorities.

3/
Read 78 tweets
Mar 31
Trumpism is a mixture of grievance, surveillance, and pettiness: "I will never forgive your mockery, I have records of you doing it, and I will punish you and everyone who associates with you for it."

1/ The Las Vegas Sphere as seen by night, with the lights of Vegas behind it. The Sphere itself has been replaced with the glaring red eye of HAL 9000 from Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey,' and centered on it is a Madison Square Garden logo. The Sphere has been topped with Trump's hair.   Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg  CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/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/2025/03/31/mad…

2/
Think of how he's going after the (cowardly) BigLaw firms:



3/abovethelaw.com/2025/03/skadde…
Read 66 tweets
Mar 25
A law professor friend tells me that LLMs have completely transformed the way she relates to grad students and postdocs - for the worse. And no, it's not that they're cheating on their homework or using LLMs to write briefs full of hallucinated cases.

1/ Norman Rockwell’s ‘self portrait.’ All the Rockwell faces have been replaced with HAL 9000 from Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey.’ His signature has been modified with a series of rotations and extra symbols. He has ten fingers on his one visible hand.    Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg  CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/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/2025/03/25/com…

2/
The thing that LLMs have changed in my friend's law school is *letters of reference*. Historically, students would only ask a prof for a letter of reference if they knew the prof really rated them.

3/
Read 36 tweets
Mar 22
I have an excellent excuse for this week's linkdump: I'm in Germany, but I'm supposed to be in LA, and I'm not, because London Heathrow shut down due to a power-station fire.



1/ mystgalaxy.com/32425DoctorowA bloody mary stacked high with many absurd, over-the-top garnishes.   Image: TDelCoro https://www.flickr.com/photos/tomasdelcoro/48116604516/  CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/
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/2025/03/22/omn…

2/
Which meant I spent all day yesterday running around like a headless chicken, trying to get home in time for my gig in San Diego on Monday (don't worry, I sorted it):

3/
Read 50 tweets

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