[Plura-list] The Foilies
Cory Doctorow
doctorow at craphound.com
Mon Mar 11 15:51:56 EDT 2024
Read today's issue online at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/11/no-foia/
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At long last, the San Francisco stop of the book tour for my new novel "The Bezzle" has been finalized: I'll be at the San Francisco Public Library Main Branch this Wednesday, March 13th, in conversation with Robin Sloan!
https://sfpl.org/events/2024/03/13/author-cory-doctrow-bezzle
Name your price for 18 of my DRM-free ebooks and support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with the Humble Cory Doctorow Bundle:
https://www.humblebundle.com/books/cory-doctorow-novel-collection-tor-books-books
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Today's links
* The Foilies: Come for the self-own, stay for the absurd cop theories.
* Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
* This day in history: 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019, 2023
* Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
* Recent appearances: Podcasts, events and more.
* Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
* Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
* Colophon: All the rest.
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🦬 The Foilies
This marks the 10th anniversary of the Foilies - awards given to the public agencies responsible for the most egregious, absurd and outrageous defiance of freedom of information requests:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/foilies-2024
The Foilies are awarded by EFF and Muckrock. This year's honorees are an entire Coen Brothers movie's worth of bizarre excuses and shenanigans. Top honors (the "Not-So-Magic-Word" award) goes to Augusta County, VA:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/foilies-2024#augusta
The staff at the Augusta County Sheriff's office somehow got the impression that if they wants to make an official communique immune to a public records request, all they had to do was add the words "NO FOIA" to the memo.
Needless to say, the law doesn't work this way. When a county employee anonymously tipped Breaking the News off to this practice, the organization quite naturally filed a request for every county document containing the phrase "NO FOIA." Given that the county's employees had thoughtfully tagged every document they suspected would get them into trouble with these words, it's no wonder that the request delivered a bumper-crop of news stories of incompetence and corruption:
https://www.breakingthrough.tv/post/augusta-foia-nightmares-sheriff-slams-county-growth-amidst-challenges-managing-department-s-payroll
These scandals come from just 140 of the 1,212 "NO FOIA" emails the county admits it has on hand - the remainder have been illegally withheld. Breaking Through News and *The Augusta Press* sued the county for the remaining emails and won - though the county has indicated that it might waste public funds appealing the decision:
https://www.newsbreak.com/@breaking-through-news-1615604/3304349127261-augusta-county-weighs-options-after-foia-defeat-mulls-appeal-reporter-demands-production?s=mp_1615604
There are so many great - by which I mean terrible - stories in this year's Foilies that it's hard to pick just a few to highlight, but boy oh boy, does the Chesterfield, Virginia Police have a *doozy* this year:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/foilies-2024#lapd
The police of Chesterfield County, VA claim that the names of *every police officer on the force* should be kept secret, because one or more of those cops might someday work undercover. As EFF writes, "It’s not at all dystopian to claim that a public law enforcement agency needs to have secret police!"
Now, I don't want to give you the impression that all this nonsense stems from small-town-Deputy-Dawg-Barney-Fife-type dimwits with harebrained schemes. Big, important statewide offices are also in the mix. Take Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who spends millions in public funds for her family to travel around America accompanied by an Arkansas State Police detail:
https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2024/jan/12/six-months-of-protecting-sanders-family-costs/
Governor Huckabee Sanders's relentless waste of public funds generated a steady, humiliating drumbeat of news coverage. This made the governor both sad and angry, prompting her to attempt to block FOIA requests for her travel spending, and when that failed, to call a special session of the legislature to enact sweeping limitations on Arkansas's sunshine law:
https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/local-regional-news/2023-09-08/sanders-calls-special-legislative-session-on-tax-cuts-foia-changes
The governor's farcical wish-list of anti-transparency measures didn't just put severe limits on the disclosure of her use of public funds. It also contained a raft of administrative changes, like an end to the practice of FOIA plaintiffs being able to recover their legal fees if they successfully sued the government for illegally suppressing disclosures.
In the end, Governor Huckabee Sanders was defeated - a torrent of opposition to the bill removed its most odious clauses, though, as EFF notes, it's a near-certainty that Huckabee Sanders will try again in the next legislative session.
The military got in on the act this year, too: the USAF's FOIA portal was altered so that filers had to swear that their request pertained to "clearly releasable" records - then failed to define "clearly releasable." After a PR fiasco, they walked the changes back:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/foilies-2024#usaf
Now for the Mississippi goddamn moment: the Mississippi Justice Courts obstruct access to *two thirds* of the public records on search warrants:
https://www.propublica.org/article/no-knock-warrants-missing-mississippi
A lawsuit by the *Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal* is seeking to force the state's courts to obey the law:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/foilies-2024#blindfold
Now: on to Wyoming! Wye not? Democracy may "die in darkness," but culture war bullshit thrives in the absence of sunshine. When (former) Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Brian Schroeder and Wyoming Department of Education Chief Communications Officer Linda Finnerty decided to waste public money on an private "Stop the Sexualization of Our Children" event, they correctly judged that secrecy would be key to pulling off the scam:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/foilies-2024#wyoming
When Wyomingans sought details about the pro-censorship event, Schroeder and Finnerty manufactured "misleading statements" about the event and its funding:
https://trib.com/news/state-regional/education/wyoming-department-of-education-lawsuit/article_0d87ae52-1c18-11ee-b541-b75142a9d1d5.html
Schroeder also illegally withheld his text messages from a public records request, ignoring state's attorneys' advice (instead, Schroeder took bad legal advice from his friend, a private attorney named Drake Hill, who told him he didn't have to follow the law):
https://cowboystatedaily.com/2023/09/14/under-oath-former-wyoming-education-chief-admits-lying-about-political-event/
The resulting lawsuit turned up 1,500+ texts and emails - enough damning evidence to discredit Schroeder and Finnerty, and to set important new precedent for sunshine laws in the cowboy state:
https://cowboystatedaily.com/2023/11/02/texts-show-schroeder-made-wyoming-dept-of-education-staff-feel-icky/
When you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bills. That's the strategy of both the Baltimore Police Department and the Richmond, Virginia Police Department. Baltimore's cops told Open Justice Baltimore that they would need to hand over *one miiiiilion dollars* if they wanted to see the department's use-of-force records. The Baltimore PD argued that the public interest fee waiver didn't apply to use-of-force records, because there was no public interest in knowing about how the only people in the state legally allowed to hit, kick, choke and shoot other people used force:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/foilies-2024#baltimore
Baltimore police eventually dropped the ask to a mere $245k, which a court totally rejected, saying it contributed to the impression that the BPD had "something to hide":
https://law.justia.com/cases/maryland/court-of-appeals/2023/20-22.html
Meanwhile, back in Virginia, the Richmond police told Open Oversight VA that they would have to pay $7,873.14 for a copy of the police's 151-item list of procedures - $52.14/hour for a pre-release review of each of those procedures (most police departments just post their procedures to their websites):
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/foilies-2024#richmond
I opened this highlight reel in Virginia, and that's a good place to stop it. I hope you'll go read the rest, I've barely scratched the surface. And once you've read these all, I hope you'll try it for yourself!
As EFF and Muckrock say:
> It's easy to feel powerless in these times, as local newsrooms close, and elected officials embrace disinformation as a standard political tool. But here's what you can do, and we promise it'll make you feel better: Pick a local agency—it could be a city council, a sheriff's office or state department of natural resources—and send them an email demanding their public record-request log, or any other record showing what requests they receive, how long it took them to respond, whether they turned over records, and how much they charged the requester for copies.
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🦬 Hey look at this
* British Library cyber incident review https://www.bl.uk/home/british-library-cyber-incident-review-8-march-2024.pdf
* Boeing: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8oCilY4szc
* LA Car Culture Warriors In Shambles After Overwhelming Vote for New Bike Lines https://www.404media.co/nimbys-in-shambles-after-la-overwhelmingly-votes-for-new-bike-lanes/
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🦬 This day in history
#20yrsago Everquest widows tell all https://eqdailygrind.blogspot.com
#15yrsago Economists call for patent and copyright abolition https://www.newswise.com/articles/view/549822/?sc=dwhn
#15yrsago Android Calling Card: slash your long-distance bills without having to dial a zillion numbers https://memex.craphound.com/2009/03/10/android-calling-card-slash-your-long-distance-bills-without-having-to-dial-a-zillion-numbers/
#15yrsago Warner Music attacks babies https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/03/fair-use-massacre-continues-now-warner-s-going-aft
#15yrsago Net Neutrality gave us the Web and saved us from gopher https://www.vice.com/en/article/xywdqk/what-the-first-website-ever-says-about-the-world-wide-webs-that-might-have-been
#15yrsago China’s mondegreen war on net-censorship http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/03/etech-liveblogging-lessons-fro.html
#15yrsago Influences on the Laugh-Out-Loud Cats https://www.neatorama.com/2009/03/10/the-influences-behind-the-laugh-out-loud-cats-by-adam-koford/
#15yrsago IT versus users: a war that everyone loses https://web.archive.org/web/20090312222459/http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/now-new-next/2009/03/the-high-priests-of-it.html
#15yrsago Billy Bragg and a coalition of UK rock stars speak up for downloaders https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/it-s-not-a-crime-to-download-say-musicians-1643217.html
#10yrsago Free to Be…You and Me is 40 https://www.cnn.com/2014/03/11/living/free-to-be-you-and-me-40-years/index.html
#10yrsago Security as a public health discipline, not an engineering one https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/11/gchq-national-security-technology
#10yrsago How the NSA plans to automatically infect “millions” of computers with spyware https://theintercept.com/2014/03/12/nsa-plans-infect-millions-computers-malware/
#10yrsago Thoughts on teaching calculus to five-year-olds https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/03/5-year-olds-can-learn-calculus/284124/
#10yrsago Tim Berners-Lee calls for Web “Magna Carta” – does the “Web we want” have DRM in it? https://memex.craphound.com/2014/03/12/tim-berners-lee-calls-for-web-magna-carta-does-the-web-we-want-have-drm-in-it/
#10yrsago Guardian Cities: how Hackney council let developers demolish the startups of “Silicon Roundabout” https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/mar/10/slow-death-of-silicon-roundabout
#10yrsago Snowden at SXSW: immediate impressions https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/11/edward-snowden-sxsw-nsa-internet
#5yrsago Why #Article13 inevitably requires filters https://communia-association.org/2019/03/05/final-x-ray-article-13-dangerous-legislative-wishful-thinking/
#5yrsago Leaked Chinese database of 1.8 million women includes a field indicating whether they are “BreedReady” https://twitter.com/0xDUDE/status/1104482014202351616
#5yrsago A recursive plaque honoring the installation of a plaque honoring the installation of a plaque honoring the installation of… https://readtheplaque.com/plaque/the-toronto-recursive-history-project
#5yrsago Universal Studios is chipping their soda cups to limit refills https://twitter.com/tinymediaempire/status/1103062313182085121
#5yrsago Former Archbishop of Canterbury cheers on students who are walking out to demand action on climate change https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/mar/10/rowan-williams-school-pupil-climate-protests
#5yrsago Defect in car security system aids carjackers, thieves https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZUQmJMuf8c
#5yrsago The eminently electable Bernie Sanders enjoys strong support from African-Americans and young people https://www.businessinsider.in/First-time-voters-for-Bernie-Sanders-dont-care-about-his-age-say-he-speaks-to-what-matters-to-them-and-wouldve-voted-for-him-in-2016/articleshow/68328211.cms
#5yrsago Trump’s FCC relies on telcos to self-police anti-robocall measures and they’re planning on gutting existing regs, so John Oliver is robocalling the whole FCC every 90 minutes https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/03/john-oliver-fights-robocalls-by-robocalling-ajit-pai-and-the-fcc/
#5yrsago Beninese musician/activist/genius Angélique Kidjo has released a tribute to Talking Heads’ Remain in Light and IT. IS. FUCKING. AMAZING. https://www.kidjo.com/remain-in-light
#5yrsago Offshore illegal GOP campaign megadonors receive record FEC fines after The Intercept reveals their crimes https://theintercept.com/2019/03/11/intercept-investigation-leads-to-record-fines-over-foreign-campaign-contributions/
#5yrsago What ephemeral messaging is good for https://memex.craphound.com/2019/03/12/what-ephemeral-messaging-is-good-for/
#5yrsago One company bought all the retail outlets for glasses, used that to force sales of all the eyewear companies and jacked up prices by as much as 1000% https://www.latimes.com/business/lazarus/la-fi-lazarus-glasses-lenscrafters-luxottica-monopoly-20190305-story.html
#1yrsago Spirit warned investors that merging with Jetblue would be illegal https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/12/they-put-it-in-writing/#that-was-then
#1yrago The Right accuses their critics of the conspiracy they themselves engage in https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/10/teneo/#i-grasp
#1yrago Excuseflation: Monopolists will never let a good emergency go to waste https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/11/price-over-volume/#pepsi-pricing-power
Upcoming appearances (permalink)
* The Bezzle at San Francisco Public Library, Mar 13
https://sfpl.org/events/2024/03/13/author-cory-doctrow-bezzle
* Enshittification: How the Internet Went Bad and How to Get it Back (virtual), Mar 26
https://libcal.library.ubc.ca/event/3781006
* Wondercon Anaheim, Mar 29-31
https://www.comic-con.org/wc/
* Computer Pasts/Computer Futures (NYU/virtual), Apr 4
https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/events/deans-public-square-series-computer-pasts-computer-futures
* The Bezzle at Harvard Berkman-Klein Center, with Randall Munroe (Apr 11)
https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/enshittification
* The Bezzle at Anderson's Books (Chicago), Apr 17
https://www.andersonsbookshop.com/event/cory-doctorow-1
* Torino Biennale Tecnologia (Apr 19-21)
https://www.turismotorino.org/en/experiences/events/biennale-tecnologia
* Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (Winnipeg), May 2
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/cory-doctorow-tickets-798820071337?aff=oddtdtcreator
* Tartu Prima Vista Literary Festival (May 5-11)
https://tartu2024.ee/en/kirjandusfestival/
* Media Ecology Association keynote (Amherst, NY), Jun 6-9
https://media-ecology.org/convention
* American Association of Law Libraries keynote (Chicago), Jul 21
https://www.aallnet.org/conference/agenda/keynote-speaker/
* The Bezzle at San Francisco Public Library, Mar 13
https://sfpl.org/events/2024/03/13/author-cory-doctrow-bezzle
* Enshittification: How the Internet Went Bad and How to Get it Back (virtual), Mar 26
https://libcal.library.ubc.ca/event/3781006
* Wondercon Anaheim, Mar 29-31
https://www.comic-con.org/wc/
* Computer Pasts/Computer Futures (NYU/virtual), Apr 4
https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/events/deans-public-square-series-computer-pasts-computer-futures
* The Bezzle at Harvard Berkman-Klein Center, with Randall Munroe (Apr 11)
https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/enshittification
* The Bezzle at Anderson's Books (Chicago), Apr 17
https://www.andersonsbookshop.com/event/cory-doctorow-1
* Torino Biennale Tecnologia (Apr 19-21)
https://www.turismotorino.org/en/experiences/events/biennale-tecnologia
* Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (Winnipeg), May 2
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/cory-doctorow-tickets-798820071337?aff=oddtdtcreator
* Tartu Prima Vista Literary Festival (May 5-11)
https://tartu2024.ee/en/kirjandusfestival/
* Media Ecology Association keynote, Jun 6-9 (Amherst, NY)
https://media-ecology.org/convention
* American Association of Law Libraries keynote, (Chicago), Jul 21
https://www.aallnet.org/conference/agenda/keynote-speaker/
Recent appearances (permalink)
* Is Social Media Becoming a Bit Shit? (The Briefing)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvPlpMd1KEw
* Radioactive (KCRL)
https://krcl.org/blog/grist-investigates-doctorow-seed/
* The enshittification of music (Music Ally)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh20fD3XXbg
Latest books (permalink)
* The Bezzle: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about prison-tech and other grifts, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2024 (the-bezzle.org). Signed, personalized copies at Dark Delicacies (https://www.darkdel.com/store/p3062/Available_Feb_20th%3A_The_Bezzle_HB.html#/).
* "The Lost Cause:" a solarpunk novel of hope in the climate emergency, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), November 2023 (http://lost-cause.org). Signed, personalized copies at Dark Delicacies (https://www.darkdel.com/store/p3007/Pre-Order_Signed_Copies%3A_The_Lost_Cause_HB.html#/)
* "The Internet Con": A nonfiction book about interoperability and Big Tech (Verso) September 2023 (http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org). Signed copies at Book Soup (https://www.booksoup.com/book/9781804291245).
* "Red Team Blues": "A grabby, compulsive thriller that will leave you knowing more about how the world works than you did before." Tor Books http://redteamblues.com. Signed copies at Dark Delicacies (US): and Forbidden Planet (UK): https://forbiddenplanet.com/385004-red-team-blues-signed-edition-hardcover/.
* "Chokepoint Capitalism: How to Beat Big Tech, Tame Big Content, and Get Artists Paid, with Rebecca Giblin", on how to unrig the markets for creative labor, Beacon Press/Scribe 2022 https://chokepointcapitalism.com
* "Attack Surface": The third Little Brother novel, a standalone technothriller for adults. The *Washington Post* called it "a political cyberthriller, vigorous, bold and savvy about the limits of revolution and resistance." Order signed, personalized copies from Dark Delicacies https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1840/Available_Now%3A_Attack_Surface.html
* "How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism": an anti-monopoly pamphlet analyzing the true harms of surveillance capitalism and proposing a solution. https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59?sk=f6cd10e54e20a07d4c6d0f3ac011af6b) (signed copies: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2024/Available_Now%3A__How_to_Destroy_Surveillance_Capitalism.html)
* "Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new introduction by Edward Snowden: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583; personalized/signed copies here: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1750/July%3A__Little_Brother_%26_Homeland.html
* "Poesy the Monster Slayer" a picture book about monsters, bedtime, gender, and kicking ass. Order here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627. Get a personalized, signed copy here: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2682/Corey_Doctorow%3A_Poesy_the_Monster_Slayer_HB.html#/.
Upcoming books (permalink)
* Picks and Shovels: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books, February 2025
* Unauthorized Bread: a graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2025
Colophon (permalink)
Today's top sources:
Currently writing:
* A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING
* Picks and Shovels, a Martin Hench noir thriller about the heroic era of the PC. FORTHCOMING TOR BOOKS JAN 2025
* Vigilant, Little Brother short story about remote invigilation. FORTHCOMING ON TOR.COM
* Spill, a Little Brother short story about pipeline protests. FORTHCOMING ON TOR.COM
Latest podcast: The Majority of Censorship is Self-Censorship https://craphound.com/news/2024/02/25/the-majority-of-censorship-is-self-censorship/
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"When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla
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