Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Feb 16, 2023 25 tweets 29 min read Read on X
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: Google's chatbot panic; and more!

Archived at: pluralistic.net/2023/02/16/twe…

#Pluralistic 1/ Tweedledee and Tweedledum, standing at the bottom of Humpty
This is the last day (Feb 17) of my #Australian tour for my book #ChokepointCapitalism with my co-author, #rgibli. We'll be in #Canberra at the Australian Digital Alliance Copyright Forum:

digital.org.au/2022/11/08/doc… 2/
Google's chatbot panic: On the infinite insecurities of a self-styled creative genius who really just buys other people's ideas.

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

* Homemade soccer balls around the world jessicahilltout.com/work/personal/… (h/t @Kottke)

* Amazon Takes a 50% Cut of Seller's Revenue marketplacepulse.com/articles/amazo… (h/t @DanGillmor)

* A Concerning Trend neil-clarke.com/a-concerning-t… (h/t @Metafilter) 4/
#20yrsago Google buy #Pyra interconnected.org/notes/2003/02/…

#20yrsago Altrustic routers would optimize the Internet web.archive.org/web/2003020100…

#10yrsago Economic recovery in the US actually made 99% of Americans poorer, top 1% captured 121% of gains nakedcapitalism.com/2013/02/yes-vi… 5/
#10yrsago #BBC betrays the public, demands #DRM for #HTML5 web.archive.org/web/2013021604…

#10yrsago Holmes scholar files suit to put #Sherlock unambiguously into the public domain web.archive.org/web/2013021902… 6/
#10yrsago Memoir of raising an autistic boy who found himself with ##DisneyWorld’s help memex.craphound.com/2013/02/16/mem…

#5yrsago FDAAA Trials Tracker: leaderboard for pharma companies that break FDA clinical trial rules biorxiv.org/content/10.110… 7/
#5yrsago A public-key #cryptography primer in the form of #Ikea instructions idea-instructions.com/public-key/

#5yrsago Once again, a #stalkerware company’s had its servers pwned and wiped by a hacker who thinks they’re selling an immoral product vice.com/en/article/3k7… 8/
#5yrsago Surge-taxing Uber as a way relieve urban congestion wired.com/story/uber-lyf…

#5yrsago Debullshitifying #Uber’s financial statement reveals a hemorrhaging fountain of red ink with no path to profitability nakedcapitalism.com/2018/02/can-ub… 9/
#5yrsago The #DHS’s “#ActiveShooter” printable wallet card, for when “thoughts and prayers” fail web.archive.org/web/2018021719…

#5yrsago New York Federal judge rules that embedding tweets can violate copyright law eff.org/deeplinks/2018… 10/
#5yrsago The independent experts who favorably evaluated #Facebook’s “Messenger Kids” were funded by Facebook wired.com/story/facebook…

#5yrsago Judge slams ICE for targeting migrants based on their political opposition to ICE shadowproof.com/2018/02/09/fir… 11/
#5yrsago The #pharma billionaires whose family company created the #opioid epidemic are disintegrating into a bickering mess theguardian.com/us-news/2018/f…

#5yrsago London demonstrates the stupid, janky future of #SmartCities theatlantic.com/technology/arc… 12/
#5yrsago The West Virginia Democrat candidate who was dragged away for calling out gas-money-dependent lawmakers has raised record-breaking sums theintercept.com/2018/02/13/can…

#1yrago #McKinsey For Kids (no, really) pluralistic.net/2022/02/15/man… 13/
#1yrago Oh great, there's #DRM in printer PAPER now pluralistic.net/2022/02/16/una…

#1yrago The extremely shady "educational integrity" industry pluralistic.net/2022/02/16/una… 14/
Wednesday's threads: Nathan J. Robinson's "Responding to the Right: Brief Replies to 25 Conservative Arguments"; and more!

15/
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… 16/
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… 17/
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/ 18/
Upcoming appearances:

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

* #Antitrust, Regulation & Political Economy (#Brussels), 3/2:
brusselsconference.com/registration 19/
Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* @SXSW #ChokepointCapitalism reading (#Austin), 2/10
schedule.sxsw.com/2023/events/PP… 20/
Recent appearances:

* The Gould Standard
pod.link/thegouldstanda…

* @RNDrive:
abc.net.au/radionational/…

* How popular movements can topple Big Tech monopolies (@tninstitute)
tni.org/en/podcast/how… 21/
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/2023/02/16/twe… 22/
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 "Of Course Mastodon Lost Users"

doctorow.medium.com/of-course-mast… 23/
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 24/
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). 25/

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More from @doctorow

May 13
When it comes to AI art (or "art"), it's hard to find a nuanced position that respects creative workers' labor rights, free expression, copyright law's vital exceptions and limitations, and aesthetics.

1/ An old woodcut of a disembodied man's hand operating a Ouija board planchette. It has been modified to add an extra finger and thumb. It has been tinted green. It has been placed on a 'code waterfall' backdrop as seen in the credit sequences of the Wachowskis' 'Matrix' movies.
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:



2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2024/05/13/spo…
I am, on balance, opposed to AI art, but there are some important caveats to that position. For starters, I think it's unequivocally wrong - as a matter of law - to say that scraping works and training a model with them infringes copyright.

3/
Read 98 tweets
May 11
Like Oscar Wilde, "I can resist anything except temptation," and my slow and halting journey to adulthood is really just me grappling with this fact, getting temptation out of my way before I can yield to it.

1/ A complex control panel whose knobs have all been replaced with the menacing red eye of HAL9000 from Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey.' A skeletal figure on one side of the image reaches out a bony finger to twiddle one of the knobs.  Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg  CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en  --  djhughman https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Modular_synthesizer_-_%22Control_Voltage%22_electronic_music_shop_in_Portland_OR_-_School_Photos_PCC_%282015-05-23_12.43.01_by_djhughman%29.jpg  CC BY 2.0 https://cr...
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:



2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2024/05/11/for…
Behavioral economists have a name for the steps we take to guard against temptation: a "Ulysses pact." That's when you take some possibility off the table during a moment of strength in recognition of some coming moment of weakness:



3/archive.org/details/decent…
Read 86 tweets
May 9
Fun fact: "The Tragedy Of the Commons" is a hoax created by the white nationalist Garrett Hardin to justify stealing land from colonized people.

1/ A lonely mud-brick well in a brown desert. It has been modified to add a 'caganar' - a traditional Spanish figure of a man crouching down and defecating - perched on the edge of the well. The caganar's head has been replaced with the menacing red eye of HAL9000 from Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey.' The sky behind this scene has been blended with a 'code waterfall' effect as seen in the credit sequences of the Wachowskis' 'Matrix' movies.  Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg  CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en  --  Cathe...
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:



2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2024/05/09/shi…
The "Tragedy" hoax said that moving land from collective ownership "rescued" it from the inevitable tragedy by putting it in the hands of a private owner, who cared for it properly, thanks to "rational self-interest":



3/pluralistic.net/2023/05/04/ana…
Read 50 tweets
May 6
Amazon is very good at everything it does, including being very bad at the things it doesn't want to do. Take signing up for Prime: nothing could be simpler. The company has built a greased slide from Prime-curiosity to Prime-confirmed that is the envy of every UX designer.

1/ A hand depositing a ballot in a perspex ballot box on a black background. The box is full of yellow-green piss and the ballot features an angry robot made from Amazon boxes and the phrase 'I am not a robot.' The box has an Amazon logo across its top.   Image: Isabela.Zanella (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ballot-box-2.jpg  CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:



2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2024/05/06/one…
But *unsubscribing* from Prime? That's a fucking *nightmare*. Somehow the company that can easily figure out how to sign up for a service is totally baffled when it comes to making it just as easy to leave.

3/
Read 49 tweets
May 4
Director Irvin Kershner posing with Darth Vader, IG-88 and Boba Fett gameraboy2.tumblr.com/post/749583586…
Image
1956 American Motors Astra-Gnome concept car, designed by Richard Arbib. humanoidhistory.tumblr.com/post/749579045…
Image
Read 10 tweets
May 3
Even Google admits - grudgingly - that it is losing the spam wars. The explosive proliferation of botshit has supercharged the sleazy "search engine optimization" business.

1/ A wall of Spam cans stacked many layers high and deep. Superimposed over it are UI elements from the Google 1998 homepage: a search box, a 'Google Search' button, and an 'I'm feeling lucky' button. The middle four rows of Spam cans have been colorized to match the Google four-color logo tones.  Image: freezelight (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spam_wall_-_Flickr_-_freezelight.jpg  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 , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:



2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2024/05/03/key…
Today, results to common queries are 50% Google ads to spam sites, and 50% links to spam sites that tricked Google into a high rank (without paying for an ad):



3/developers.google.com/search/blog/20…
Read 57 tweets

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