Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Jun 5, 2023 31 tweets 38 min read Read on X
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: Wall Street Journal goes to bat for the vultures who want to steal your house; and more!

Archived at: pluralistic.net/2023/06/04/vul…

#Pluralistic

1/ A Georgian eviction scene i...
Tonight (5/6) at 7:15PM, I'm at the #BritishLibrary with my book *Red Team Blues* for an event hosted by @Marthalanefox:

bl.uk/events/an-even…

Tomorrow 6/6, I'm doing a remote panel on #interoperability for @rightscon:

eff.org/deeplinks/2023…

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Wall Street Journal goes to bat for the vultures who want to steal your house: When the editorial page leaks into the news.



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Hey look at this

* Undetectable #Watermarks for #LanguageModels eprint.iacr.org/2023/763 (h/t @yvessmith)

* The Best Snack for Ginger Lovers eater.com/23719817/best-… (h/t Robin Sloan)

* #StreetFighterII, paper trails fabiensanglard.net/sf2_sheets/ind… (h/t Robin Sloan)

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#20yrsago A librarian on the #PATRIOTAct latimes.com/archives/la-xp…

#20yrsago Willful #Infringement — illegal copyright documentary web.archive.org/web/2003061103…

#15yrsago #Sequoia #VotingMachines debacle in New Jersey: unguarded machines and broken tildes freedom-to-tinker.com/2008/06/03/nj-…

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#15yrsago #IndustryCanada involved in Wikipedia edit-war over Canadian #DMCA michaelgeist.ca/2008/06/prenti…

#15yrsago Photographers aren’t terrorists and vice-versa schneier.com/blog/archives/…

#15yrsago #BritishTelecom’s eavesdropping software crashed browsers wired.com/2008/06/isp-sp…

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#15yrsago Entertainment industry accuses campus laser-printers of downloading Indiana Jones archive.nytimes.com/bits.blogs.nyt…

#10yrsago Scenes from #OccupyGezi occupygezipics.tumblr.com/post/522176509…

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#10yrsago #Anonymizing is really hard really, so why is the EU acting like it’s easy? theguardian.com/technology/blo…

#10yrsago Beast Academy: grade three math textbooks in monster comics form memex.craphound.com/2013/06/05/bea…

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#10yrsago California wants an end to taxpayer subsidy for WalMart forbes.com/sites/rickunga…

#10yrsago Porno copyright trolls #Prenda: expert says they pirated their own movies to get victims to download techdirt.com/2013/06/03/new…

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#10yrsago #ThisAmericanLife on the awful, crooked mess of the #patent system thisamericanlife.org/496/when-paten…

#5yrsago How do we fix #IoT security without blocking #interoperability and creating #monopolies? nytimes.com/2018/06/03/opi…

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#5yrsago #Bavaria says its mandatory crosses aren’t religious, so there should be no problem hanging them upside-down, right? spellingmistakescostlives.com/kreuzpflicht

#5yrsago Mass protests against #IMF #austerity force #Jordan’s Prime Minister to resign bbc.com/news/world-mid…

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#5yrsago Laramie County, Wyoming Sheriffs’ department blocks public records requests for their #PrisonPhone monopoly deal techdirt.com/2018/06/04/she…

#5yrsago #BigTech has established a “kill zone” of business ideas that startups can’t get funded to try economist.com/business/2018/…

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#5yrsago Vintage internal security posters, pried loose from the #NSA’s archives governmentattic.org/28docs/NSAsecu…

#5yrsago “Originality” is just filing the serial numbers off of others’ contributions to your ideas copy-me.org/2018/06/the-cr…

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#5yrsago America: where rising productivity means longer working hours jacobin.com/2018/06/workin…

#5yrsago #RobFord crack-smoking video is “gone” gawker.com/the-rob-ford-c…

#5yrsago HOWTO make edible Aliens eggs and chestbursters

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#5yrsago Facebook is the hub of the global trade in #EndangeredSpecies: can securities law be used to force the company into action? wired.com/story/tusks-ho…

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#5yrsago For more than a decade, Facebook shared your friends’ data and other sensitive info with phone makers, even after they claimed not to (they’re still doing it) nytimes.com/interactive/20…

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#5yrsago #Bayer and #Monsanto merge into a new company called “Bayer” because #Nazis have a better reputation than #BigAg reuters.com/article/us-mon…

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#5yrsago This viral campaign video for a progressive New York Democratic primary challenger cost less than $10K and spread like wildfire #AOC theintercept.com/2018/06/05/oca…

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#5yrsago It’s really easy to steal your cellphone number, and that’s a gateway to stealing everything else consumerreports.org/scams-fraud/ce…

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#5yrsago #RobFord’s brother is running for Ontario Premier, but Rob Ford’s widow is suing him for stealing millions from the family cbc.ca/news/canada/to…

#1yrago The Big Box of Sparkly Unicorn Magic pluralistic.net/2022/06/05/hea…

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Saturday's threads: Washington State's capital gains tax proves we can have nice things; and more!



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My latest novel is Red Team Blues, available wherever books are sold!

Signed copies at @DarkDel:

darkdel.com/store/p2873/We…

23/
My latest nonfiction 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…

24/
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/

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Upcoming appearances:

* Red Team Blues with @Marthalanefox at the @bl, 6/5 (#London):
bl.uk/events/an-even…

* @rightscon, "#Interoperability: from buzzword to a map of solutions," Jun 6 (#CostaRica):
rightscon.org/program/

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Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* @republica keynote, 6/7 (#Berlin)
re-publica.com/de/news/rp23-k…

* @otherlandberlin event for Red Team Blues, 6/8, 8PM (#Berlin)
otherland-berlin.de/de/event-detai…

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Recent appearances:

* How To Save News Media From Our Tech Overlords (@CANADALAND)
canadaland.com/podcast/888-ho…

* Most AI is not artificial or intelligent (with @jamesbridle)


* @machinekillspod
soundcloud.com/thismachinekil…

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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/2023/06/04/vul…

29/
If you're a @Medium subscriber, you can read these essays - and previews of upcoming columns and exclusives on doctorow.medium.com.

My latest Medium column is "Ayyyyy Eyeeee: The lie that raced around the world before the truth got its boots on"

doctorow.medium.com/ayyyyyy-eyeeee…
30/
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: mail.flarn.com/mailman/listin…

31/
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).

eof/

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More from @doctorow

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
Mar 19
Paula Le Dieu is one of the smartest, most committed archivists I know. Many years ago, she shared a neat analogy with me about the paywalling of public archives.

1/ The Columbia University library, a stately, columnated building, color-shifted to highlight reds and oranges. The sky behind it has been filled with flames. In the foreground, a figure in a firefighter's helmet and yellow coat uses a flamethrower to shoot a jet of orange fire.   Image: Ajay Suresh https://www.flickr.com/photos/ajay_suresh/52009406881/  CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/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/2025/03/19/sel…

2/
This phenomenon has become rampant as public institutions have been pushed to seek private funding to close the gaps left by swingeing cuts.

3/
Read 26 tweets
Mar 18
AI can't do your job, but an AI salesman (Elon Musk) can convince your boss (the USA) to fire you and replace you (a federal worker) with a chatbot that can't do your job:



1/ pcmag.com/news/amid-job-…The capital building, crossed by a yellow hazmat tape emblazoned 'DANGER ASBESTOS.' Behind the tape stands a figure in an old-fashioned hazmat suit. In the background are the blown-up faces of a group of grubby, miserable child miners. The capital dome has been replaced with the glaring red eye of HAL 9000 from Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey.'     Image: Krd (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DASA_01.jpg  CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en  --  Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg  CC BY 3.0 https://creati...
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/2025/03/18/asb…

2/
If you pay attention to the hype, you'd think that all the action on "AI" (an incoherent grab-bag of only marginally related technologies) was in generating text and images. Man, is that ever wrong.

3/
Read 26 tweets
Mar 15
Even by Amazon standards, this is extraordinarily sleazy: starting March 28, each Amazon Echo device will cease processing audio on-device and instead upload all the audio it captures to Amazon's cloud for processing.

1/ A cylindrical black Alexa speaker on a coffee table; it is wearing a Darth Vader helmet.  Image: Stock Catalog/https://www.quotecatalog.com (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alexa_%2840770465691%29.jpg  Sam Howzit (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SWC_6_-_Darth_Vader_Costume_(7865106344).jpg  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/2025/03/15/alt…

2/
This will happen even if you have previously opted out of cloud-based processing:



3/arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/0…
Read 48 tweets
Mar 13
My theory of the "shitty technology adoption curve" holds that you can predict the future impact of abusive technologies on you by observing the way these are deployed against people who have less social power than you:



1/ pluralistic.net/2023/06/11/the…A magnified image of the inside of an automated backup tape library, with gleaming racks of silver tape drives receding into the distance. In the foreground is a pile of dirt being shoveled by three figures in prisoner's stripes. Two of the figures' heads have been replaced with cliche hacker-in-hoodie heads, from which shine yellow, inverted Amazon 'smile' logos, such that the smile is a frown. The remaining figure's head has been replaced with a horse's head. Behind the figure is an impatiently poised man in a sharp business suit, glaring at his watch. His head has been replaced with the ...
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/2025/03/13/ele…

2/
When you have a new, abusive technology, you can't just aim it at rich, powerful people, because when *they* complain, they get results.

3/
Read 71 tweets

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