From doctorow at craphound.com Tue Oct 1 10:00:01 2024 From: doctorow at craphound.com (Cory Doctorow) Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2024 07:00:01 -0700 Subject: [Plura-list] Everyday homeowners are human shields for Wall Street's Internet of Shit slumlords Message-ID: Read today's issue online at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/01/housing-is-a-human-right/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ Tor Books has just published two new, free "Little Brother" stories: "Vigilant," about creepy surveillance in distance education: https://reactormag.com/spill-cory-doctorow/ And "Spill," about oil pipelines and indigenous landback: https://reactormag.com/vigilant-cory-doctorow/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ Today's links * Everyday homeowners are human shields for Wall Street's Internet of Shit slumlords: Put Wall Street landlords up against a wall. * Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. * This day in history: 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019, 2023 * Upcoming appearances: Where to find me. * Recent appearances: Where I've been. * 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. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ???? Everyday homeowners are human shields for Wall Street's Internet of Shit slumlords The American Dream, such as it is, used to be *two* dreams, one based on work and solidarity, the other on asset appreciation and disconnected individualism. We killed the first one. As the New Deal gave way to the post-war social safety net, Americans discovered two paths to social mobility: they could join a union, and they could buy a home. Joining a union meant that your wages would rise with productivity, and that the democratic ideal that you were meant to approach once every two years at the ballot-box could follow you into the building you spent more waking hours in than any other: your jobsite. Labor unions used their political power to win labor *rights*, so that even workers who weren't a union couldn't be arbitrarily fired, or maimed on the job with impunity, or harassed or abused. And while the labor movement was mired in the same racist legacy that every American institution brought forward out of genocide and slavery, where racialized people started unions of their own or demanded representation from the unions who nominally represented them, they thrived. Then there were houses. On the one hand, owning your home insulated you from the petty tyranny of the landlord, the threat of eviction, rent hikes, indifferent or dangerous building maintenance, and all the other miseries that arise when you think of a building as your home and someone else thinks of it as an asset, and the board is tilted so that they win every argument. But homeownership wasn't just sold as a way to get out from under scumbag landlords: it was primarily sold as a way to build intergenerational wealth. Your house wasn't just a place to live: it was an asset, and it *appreciated*. And if the dividends of labor protection were unevenly distributed between white people and racial minorities, the dividends of home ownership were almost *entirely* hoarded by white families. Federal policies - redlining - combined with racist lending at the local level, meant that Black families and other racialized groups were stuck in tenancy, while white families build wealth thanks to federal subsidies: https://web.archive.org/web/20170220005558/https://www.demos.org/sites/default/files/publications/Asset%20Value%20of%20Whiteness.pdf Those were the two American dreams: a good job and your own home. We killed the first one, and the second one devoured us whole. Without a strong labor movement, wages stagnated. Corporate power waxed, and with it, the power to pollute, to poison, to maim and to defraud. The labor movement wasn't strong enough to stop Reagan from killing free UC tuition when he was governor of California. It wasn't strong enough to hold back spiraling health care prices. It wasn't strong enough to block the business lobby from neutering antitrust and ushering in four decades of market concentration, market capture and corruption. Workers couldn't save their defined benefits pension and were railroaded into market-based 401(k)s, forcing them to play the stock casino against their bosses, ever the sucker at the poker table. With stagnant wages and out of control medical, educational and end-of-life bills, homeownership - the thing you do as an individual, where your gain is someone else's loss - became the American secular religion. Your house wasn't just a place to sleep and keep your photo albums: if it appreciated enough, you might be able to liquidate it on your deathbed and pay off your eldercare, your healthcare, your kids' college debt, and leave enough left over for your kids' downpayments. And so every American who had a home became the enemy of every American who didn't - including one another's children. Every home built threatened your own property values. The racist, batshit American school funding formula, which sees schools funded out of property taxes, meaning the richest kids get the best schools, turned out to be a great way to increase your property values. Protections for tenants, meanwhile, threatened the entire American way of life - the American dream itself. Every protection a tenant got - protection from eviction or rent hikes, the legal right to a safe and well-maintained home - reduced the value of every home in town. After all, the better a landlord has to treat their tenants, the less money a landlord can make from a rental property. The less money a landlord can make from a rental property, the less they'd bid on a house like yours if it went up for sale. And since anyone planning to buy your house to live in it has to outbid a landlord who might want to rent it out, giving tenants any protection threatened everything - the one asset you owned, which was your plan a, b and c for paying off all that health, education, and assisted living debt: https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/06/the-rents-too-damned-high/ Today, the house-as-asset scam is breathing its last. There are millions more people who need homes than there are homes available. Sure, homelessness is a fantastically complex problem, but you could address every aspect of it - addiction, mental illness, joblessness - and millions of people would *still* be homeless, because there aren't enough homes for them to live in: https://headgum.com/factually-with-adam-conover/myths-about-homeless-people-with-dr-margot-kushel 70% of all inflation in 2024 came from the cost of housing; a quarter of *that* came from illegal collusive behavior by landlords to hike rents: https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/up-to-a-quarter-of-rental-inflation Wall Street landlords have raised gigantic war-chests and are buying up homes at a rate never before seen, converting every available single-family home in many cities from an owner-occupied home to a rental. Private equity and hedge fund landlords have elevated charging junk fees to an absurdist theater project: you pay a "convenience" charge for paying your rent in cash. But also for paying your rent by direct transfer. Oh, and also for paying in cash. When Wall Street is your landlord, your home is a slum, dangerously undermaintained, sometimes lethally so: https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/08/wall-street-landlords/#the-new-slumlords Capitalists hate capitalism. The best thing to sell is something your customer can't live without, and that no one else has for sale. That's why "the market" loves private prisons so much: https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/02/captive-customers/#guillotine-watch The vast sums Wall Street is putting into buying up all of America's available housing stock is a bet that they can establish regional monopolies over *having a home*, and charge all the market can bear. That's the plan at Invitation Homes, a company that was just targeted by the @FTC for a slate of eye-watering crimes against the tenants in the 80,000 single-family homes they've acquired: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/09/ftc-takes-action-against-invitation-homes-deceiving-renters-charging-junk-fees-withholding-security Invitation Homes purchases homes as they come on the market, and they're also a leading customer of the "build-to-rent" housing industry, a fast-growing segment of new housing starts. Writing about the FTC's enforcement action against Invitation Homes, Matt Soller brings in Starwood Capital Group, who manage Invitation Homes properties, and own 14,000 more homes in the sunbelt. Invitation and Starwood *hate* the anti-monopoly movement, and Barry Sternlicht, Starwood's billionaire CEO, *really* hates FTC Chair Lina Khan: https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/monopoly-round-up-corporate-slumlords The FTC complaint lays out a suite of just comically sleazy things ways that Invitation abuses its tenants, starting with false advertising. The company lists its houses at relatively low rents, then charges a large fee to apply to live there. When you pass the application process, you're told the rent is actually much higher, and if you walk away from the deal, you forfeit your application fee. That scam's netted Invitation $18m since 2019. Stoller *really* hates junk fees, calling them "convenience fees without any convenience, service charges without any service performed." He lays out Invitation's long list of junk fees, which honestly sound like a list that Chatgpt would spit out if you prompted it for fifty junk fees that wouldn't pass the giggle-test: "utility management fees" "Lease Easy bundle fees," "air filter delivery fee," "smart home technology fees," etc etc. "Smart home technology fee?" Yeah, Invitation's gone in hard for Internet of Shit smart home tech. The SVP who oversees Invitation's smart home fee program was ordered to "juice this hog" (you guys, juice doesn't come from hogs). After decades of recruiting everyday American homeowners to demand anti-tenant policies that benefit giant corporations, American tenants have few rights on paper and even fewer in practice. That's left the door wide open for Invitation to abuse their tenants in a myriad of dismal and unimaginative ways: stealing their deposits, trashing their credit reports to retaliate against complaints, illegal evictions, busted appliances, mold, vermin, insects - the whole slumlord playbook. As Stoller writes, there's a twist: "this landlord isn?t just a random slumlord, it?s one of the biggest Wall Street players in housing." There are vast fortunes to be made in converting the human right to housing into an asset class, but those fortunes end up in the hands of a very small number of billionaires. On their own, they wouldn't have the political power to dismantle protections for tenants. Realistically speaking, most kids who grew up in their parents' owner-occupied homes are going to end up tenants, thanks to undersupply and housing inflation. But those kids' parents have spent decades demanding policies to make their homes as valuable as possible - including mortgage tax breaks (but not rent tax breaks!), looser eviction laws, and less enforcement of what few protections tenants have. Middle class homeowners are the useful idiots and human shields of the billionaires who are determined to force every American under 40 raise their kids in a rented slum full of spiders, ratshit and black mold, which will still cost 60% of their take-home salary. That's why the FTC's action against Invitation Homes is such a big deal. And as Stoller points out, Chair Khan is really just implementing Kamala Harris's campaign promise to get Wall Street out of the landlord business. Wall Street's raid on your bedroom and kitchen has inspired a generation of "finfluencer" copycats who buy and flip apartment buildings, sucking ever-larger amounts of cash out of them until they're unfit for human habitation, with mountains of rat-infested garbage ringing their crumbling walls: https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/22/koteswar-jay-gajavelli/#if-you-ever-go-to-houston Any future worth living in is going to get housing right. We need to stop thinking of housing as an asset and realize that it is, first and foremost, a human right. That's the premise of my 2023 solarpunk novel *The Lost Cause*, which just came out in paperback: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865946/thelostcause You can't protect yourself from rising seas or rising healthcare bills through individual home-ownership. Solidarity - the kind of solidarity that once powered the union movement, and that is powering it again - is the only way to defeat the housing profiteers. The New Deal wasn't perfect, which is why whatever we do next has to be bigger, further reaching, and more inclusive than what FDR did almost a century ago. The only minority that should be excluded from the next New Deal is *billionaires*. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ???? Hey look at this * Georgia Voter Registration Check https://georgia.keepthevote.org * If you have ever used Uber Eats, you can't sue Uber when they crash one of their cars into you https://www.jwz.org/blog/2024/09/if-you-have-ever-used-uber-eats-you-cant-sue-uber-when-they-crash-one-of-their-cars-into-you/ * The Past, Present, and Future of Software Evolution https://moscow.sci-hub.st/3119/c99d2042ae9743e7326ed57ba9c5ef75/godfrey2008.pdf#navpanes=0&view=FitH (h/t Gus Thomas) ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ???? This day in history #20yrsago India: Your IP is NG for us https://web.archive.org/web/20041011200232/http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/ip-health/2004-October/006992.html #20yrsago Bruce Sterling: Marry the UN and the Net https://web.archive.org/web/20041012070928/http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/001314.html #15yrsago HOWTO make scary guts out of expanding foam insulation https://web.archive.org/web/20091211220737/http://www.halloween-haunted-house.com/how.html#guts #15yrsago Liar: YA suspense novel that elevates the unreliable narrator to a new level https://memex.craphound.com/2009/10/01/liar-ya-suspense-novel-that-elevates-the-unreliable-narrator-to-a-new-level/ #10yrsago Finance industry profiteers exploit prisoners? families https://time.com/3446372/criminal-justice-prisoners-profit/ #10yrsago No Such Thing: spooky (not scary!) picture book https://memex.craphound.com/2014/10/01/no-such-thing-spooky-not-scary-picture-book/ #10yrsago Hundreds of US police forces have distributed malware as ?Internet safety software? https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/09/computercop-dangerous-internet-safety-software-hundreds-police-agencies #10yrsago Chinese security forces administer rectal probes to 10,000 pigeons https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2014/10/1/chinese-security-body-searches-10000-pigeons #5yrsago Europe?s Right to Repair rules have passed, and will take effect in 2021 https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49884827 #5yrsago Make: a Halloween ?Useless Machine? with a skeleton inside it https://www.instructables.com/RIP-Skeleton/ #5yrsago Zuckerberg: President Warren would ?suck? for Facebook https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/1/20892354/mark-zuckerberg-full-transcript-leaked-facebook-meetings #5yrsago Consent in Gaming: a guide for GMs and players to difficult subjects for amazing games https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/288535/Consent-in-Gaming #5yrsago ?The Tragedy of the Commons?: how ecofascism was smuggled into mainstream thought https://thebaffler.com/latest/first-as-tragedy-then-as-fascism-amend #5yrsago Surveillance camera hallucinates face in the snow, won?t shut up about it https://twitter.com/kcimc/status/1099934485301276673https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/shipping-pollution-sea-open-loop-scrubber-carbon-dioxide-environment-a9123181.html #5yrsago Stock buybacks: how Wall Street has created ?profits without prosperity? https://worth.com/stock-buybacks-threaten-economic-growth/ #1yrago How the Writers Guild sunk AI?s ship https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/01/how-the-writers-guild-sunk-ais-ship/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ???? Upcoming appearances * Was There Ever an Old, Good Internet? David Graeber Institute (Remote), Oct 3 https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUsduuprjgpG9C4SAenCK4jOsawnkxDrY_-#/registration * ?Come distruggere il capitalismo della sorveglianza? (Pisa/Remote), Oct 12 https://www.internetfestival.it/programma/come-distruggere-il-capitalismo-della-sorveglianza/ * SOSS Fusion (Atlanta), Oct 22 https://sossfusion2024.sched.com/speaker/cory_doctorow.1qm5qfgn * TusCon (Tucson), Nov 8-10 https://tusconscificon.com/ * International Cooperative Alliance (New Delhi), Nov 24 https://icanewdelhi2024.coop/welcome/pages/Programme ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ???? Recent appearances * Rethink: Is the internet getting worse? https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0022z9r * Annie's Book Stop Of Worcester https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYM3WOPOMC0 * DEF CON 32 - Disenshittify or die! How hackers can seize the means of computation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EmstuO0Em8 ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ???? Latest books * 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 * Picks and Shovels: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books, February 2025 * Unauthorized Bread: a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2025 ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ???? Colophon Today's top sources: Currently writing: * Enshittification: a nonfiction book about platform decay for Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Today's progress: 782 words (56197 words total). * 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 Latest podcast: Vigilant (a Little Brother story) https://craphound.com/littlebrother/2024/09/29/vigilant-a-little-brother-story/ This work - excluding any serialized fiction - is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ???? How to get Pluralistic: Blog (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): Pluralistic.net Newsletter (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://pluralistic.net/plura-list Mastodon (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic Medium (no ads, paywalled): https://doctorow.medium.com/ Twitter (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://twitter.com/doctorow Tumblr (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/tagged/pluralistic "*When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla*" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: OpenPGP_0x9026DBBE1FC237AF.asc Type: application/pgp-keys Size: 3650 bytes Desc: OpenPGP public key URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: OpenPGP_signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 203 bytes Desc: OpenPGP digital signature URL: From doctorow at craphound.com Wed Oct 2 08:14:32 2024 From: doctorow at craphound.com (Cory Doctorow) Date: Wed, 2 Oct 2024 05:14:32 -0700 Subject: [Plura-list] Epic Systems, a lethal health record monopolist Message-ID: Read today's issue online at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/02/upcoded-to-death/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ Tor Books has just published two new, free "Little Brother" stories: "Vigilant," about creepy surveillance in distance education: https://reactormag.com/spill-cory-doctorow/ And "Spill," about oil pipelines and indigenous landback: https://reactormag.com/vigilant-cory-doctorow/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ Today's links * Epic Systems, a lethal health record monopolist: Clinical needs sacrificed to profit maximization. * Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. * This day in history: 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019 * Upcoming appearances: Where to find me. * Recent appearances: Where I've been. * 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. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Epic Systems, a lethal health record monopolist Epic Systems makes the dominant electronic health record (EHR) system in America; if you're a doctor, chances are you are *required* to use it, and for every hour a doctor spends with a patient, they have to spend *two* hours doing clinically useless bureaucratic data-entry on an Epic EHR. How could a product so manifestly unfit for purpose be the absolute market leader? Simple: as Robert Kuttner describes in an excellent feature in *The American Prospect*, Epic may be a *clinical* disaster, but it's a profit-generating *miracle*: https://prospect.org/health/2024-10-01-epic-dystopia/ At the core of Epic's value proposition is "upcoding," a form of billing fraud that is beloved of hospital administrators, including the "nonprofit" hospitals that generate vast fortunes that are somehow not characterized as profits. Here's a particularly egregious form of upcoding: back in 2020, the Poudre Valley Hospital in Ft Collins, CO locked all its doors except the ER entrance. Every patient entering the hospital, including those receiving absolutely routine care, was therefore processed as an "emergency." In April 2020, Caitlin Wells Salerno - a pregnant biologist - drove to Poudre Valley with normal labor pains. She walked herself up to obstetrics, declining the offer of a wheelchair, stopping only to snap a cheeky selfie. Nevertheless, the hospital recorded her normal, uncomplicated birth as a Level 5 emergency - comparable to a major heart-attack - and whacked her with a $2755 bill for emergency care: https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/27/crossing-a-line/#zero-fucks-given Upcoding has its origins in the Reagan revolution, when the market-worshipping cultists he'd put in charge of health care created the "Prospective Payment System," which paid a lump sum for care. The idea was to incentivize hospitals to provide efficient care, since they could keep the difference between whatever they spent getting you better and the set PPS amount that Medicare would reimburse them. Hospitals responded by inventing upcoding: a patient with controlled, long-term coronary disease who showed up with a broken leg would get coded for the coronary condition *and* the cast, and the hospital would pocket both lump sums: https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/13/a-punch-in-the-guts/#hayek-pilled The reason hospital administrators love Epic, and pay gigantic sums for systemwide software licenses, is directly connected to the two hours that doctors spent filling in Epic forms for every hour they spend treating patients. Epic collects all that extra information in order to identify potential sources of plausible upcodes, which allows hospitals to bill patients, insurers, and Medicare through the nose for routine care. Epic can automatically recode "diabetes with no complications" from a Hierarchical Condition Category code 19 (worth $894.40) as "diabetes with kidney failure," code 18 and 136, which gooses the reimbursement to $1273.60. Epic snitches on doctors to their bosses, giving them a dashboard to track doctors' compliance with upcoding suggestions. One of Kuttner's doctor sources says her supervisor contacts her with questions like, "That appointment was a 2. Don?t you think it might be a 3?" Robert Kuttner is the perfect journalist to unravel the Epic scam. As a journalist who wrote for *The New England Journal of Medicine*, he's got an insider's knowledge of the health industry, and plenty of sources among health professionals. As he tells it, Epic is a cultlike, insular company that employs 12.500 people in its hometown of Verona, WI. The EHR industry's origins start with a GW Bush-era law called the HITECH Act, which was later folded into Obama's Recovery Act in 2009. Obama provided $27b to hospitals that installed EHR systems. These systems had to more than track patient outcomes - they also provided the data for pay-for-performance incentives. EHRs were already trying to do something very complicated - track health outcomes - but now they were also meant to underpin a cockamamie "incentives" program that was supposed to provide a carrot to the health industry so it would stop killing people and ripping off Medicare. EHRs devolved into obscenely complex spaghetti systems that doctors and nurses loathed on sight. But there was one group that *loved* EHRs: hospital administrators and the private companies offering Medicare Advantage plans (which also benefited from upcoding patients in order to soak Uncle Sucker): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8649706/ The spread of EHRs neatly tracks with a spike in upcharging: "from 2014 through 2019, the number of hospital stays billed at the highest severity level increased almost 20 percent...the number of stays billed at each of the other severity levels decreased": https://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/OEI-02-18-00380.pdf The purpose of a system is what it does. Epic's industry-dominating EHR is *great* at price-gouging, but it sucks as a clinical tool - it takes *18 keystrokes* just to enter a prescription: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2729481 Doctors need to see patients, but their bosses demand that they satisfy Epic's endless red tape. Doctors now routinely stay late after work and show up hours early, just to do paperwork. It's not enough. According to another one of Kuttner's sources, doctors routinely copy-and-paste earlier entries into the current one, a practice that generates rampant errors. Some just make up random numbers to fulfill Epic's nonsensical requirements: the same source told Kuttner that when prompted to enter a pain score for his TB patients, he just enters "zero." Don't worry, Epic has a solution: AI. They've rolled out an "ambient listening" tool that attempts to transcribe everything the doctor and patient say during an exam and then bash it into a visit report. Not only is this prone to the customary mistakes that make AI unsuited to high-stakes, error-sensitive applications, it also represents a profound misunderstanding of the purpose of clinical notes. The very exercise of organizing your thoughts and reflections about an event - such as a medical exam - into a coherent report makes you apply rigor and perspective to events that otherwise arrive as a series of fleeting impressions and reactions. That's why blogging is such an effective practice: https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/09/the-memex-method/ The answer to doctors not having time to reflect and organize good notes is to give them more time - not more AI. As another doctor told Kuttner: "Ambient listening is a solution to a self-created problem of requiring too much data entry by clinicians." EHRs are one of those especially hellish public-private partnerships. Health care doctrine from Reagan to Obama insisted that the system just needed to be exposed to market forces and incentives. EHRs are designed to allow hospitals to win as many of these incentives as possible. Epic's clinical care modules do this by bombarding doctors with low-quality diagnostic suggestions with "little to do with a patient?s actual condition and risks," leading to "alert fatigue," so doctors miss the important alerts in the storm of nonsense elbow-jostling: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5058605/ Clinicians who actually want to improve the quality of care in their facilities end up recording data manually and keying it into spreadsheets, because they can't get Epic to give them the data they need. Meanwhile, an army of high-priced consultants stand ready to give clinicians advise on getting Epic to do what they need, but can't seem to deliver. Ironically, one of the benefits that Epic touts is its interoperability: hospitals that buy Epic systems can interconnect those with other Epic systems, and there's a large ecosystem of aftermarket add-ons that work with Epic. But Epic is a product, not a protocol, so its much-touted interop exists entirely on its terms, and at its sufferance. If Epic chooses, a doctor using its products can send files to a doctor using a rival product. But Epic can also veto that activity - and its veto extends to deciding whether a hospital can export their patient records to a competing service and get off Epic altogether. One major selling point for Epic is its capacity to export "anonymized" data for medical research. Very large patient data-sets like Epic's are reasonably believed to contain many potential medical insights, so medical researchers are very excited at the prospect of interrogating that data. But Epic's approach - anonymizing files containing the most sensitive information imaginable, about millions of people, and then releasing them to third parties - is a nightmare. "De-identified" data-sets are notoriously vulnerable to "re-identification" and the threat of re-identification only increases every time there's another release or breach, which can used to reveal the identities of people in anonymized records. For example, if you have a database of all the prescribing at a given hospital - a numeric identifier representing the patient, and the time and date when they saw a doctor and got a scrip. At any time in the future, a big location-data breach - say, from Uber or a transit system - can show you which people went back and forth to the hospital at the times that line up with those doctor's appointments, unmasking the person who got abortion meds, cancer meds, psychiatric meds or other sensitive prescriptions. The fact that anonymized data can - will! - be re-identified doesn't mean we have to give up on the prospect of gleaning insight from medical records. In the UK, the eminent doctor Ben Goldacre and colleagues built an incredible effective, privacy-preserving "trusted research environment" (TRE) to operate on millions of NHS records across a decentralized system of hospitals and trusts without ever moving the data off their own servers: https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/08/the-fire-of-orodruin/#are-we-the-baddies The TRE is an open source, transparent server that accepts complex research questions in the form of database queries. These queries are posted to a public server for peer-review and revision, and when they're ready, the TRE sends them to each of the databases where the records are held. Those databases transmits responses to the TRE, which then publishes them. This has been unimaginably successful: the prototype of the TRE launched during the lockdown generated *sixty* papers in *Nature* in a matter of months. Monopolies are inefficient, and Epic's outmoded and dangerous approach to research, along with the roadblocks it puts in the way of clinical excellence, epitomizes the problems with monopoly. America's health care industry is a dumpster fire from top to bottom - from Medicare Advantage to hospital cartels - and allowing Epic to dominate the EHR market has somehow, incredibly, made that system even worse. Naturally, Kuttner finishes out his article with some antitrust analysis, sketching out how the Sherman Act could be brought to bear on Epic. Something *has* to be done. Epic's software is one of the many reasons that MDs are leaving the medical profession in droves. Epic epitomizes the long-standing class war between doctors who want to take care of their patients and hospital executives who want to make a buck off of those patients. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Hey look at this * Inside the $621 Million Legal Battle for the ?Soul of the Internet? https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/internet-archive-major-label-music-lawsuit-1235105273/ * Alleged Tax Dodger Says It?s a ?Legitimate Snail-Farming Operation? https://www.loweringthebar.net/2024/10/alleged-tax-dodger-says-its-a-legitimate-snail-farming-operation.html * Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney renews blast at ?gatekeeper? platform owners https://venturebeat.com/games/epic-games-ceo-tim-sweeney-renews-blast-at-gatekeeper-platform-owners/ (h/t Slashdot) ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? This day in history #20yrsago George Soros blogs https://web.archive.org/web/20041009162245/http://georgesoros.com/index.cfm?Fuseaction=Home #15yrsago Zombies Calling: snappy popcult zombie comic in the Scott Pilgrim mold https://memex.craphound.com/2009/10/02/zombies-calling-snappy-popcult-zombie-comic-in-the-scott-pilgrim-mold/ #10yrsago Keurig sued for anti-competitive K-cup tactics https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/keurig-coffee-sued-for-600m-by-ontario-based-club-coffee-1.2783633 #10yrsago Directors? commentary for ?In Real Life? https://web.archive.org/web/20160331041746/http://www.forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2014/directors-commentary-cory-doctorow-jen-wang-talk-in-real-life/ #10yrsago David Cameron raps the Tories? nasty party manifesto https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YBumQHPAeU #10yrsago Hong Kong and America: two systems, one corruption https://web.archive.org/web/20141006033919/http://www.lessig.org/2014/10/we-should-be-protesting-too/ #10yrsago World Intellectual Property Organization in shambolic chaos https://www.keionline.org/22621 #10yrsago Why the UK middle class should be rioting in the streets https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/11109845/Why-arent-the-British-middle-classes-staging-a-revolution.html #10yrsago Human beings are the gut flora of immortal, transhuman corporations https://memex.craphound.com/2014/10/02/human-beings-are-the-gut-flora-of-immortal-transhuman-corporations/ #10yrsago Daughter of Hong Kong leader thanks ?taxpayers? for diamonds on Facebook https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/china/Hong-Kong-leaders-daughter-creates-controversy-with-Facebook-post/articleshow/44115995.cms #10yrsago Nobody wants to host the 2022 Olympics https://sports.yahoo.com/why-no-one-wants-to-host-the-2022-olympics-225450509.html?soc_src=mediacontentstory #5yrsago IRS admits it audits poor people because auditing rich people is too expensive https://www.propublica.org/article/irs-sorry-but-its-just-easier-and-cheaper-to-audit-the-poor#168476 #5yrsago Elizabeth Warren proposes an ?excessive lobbying tax? that would fund independent Congressional experts and public participation in policy https://medium.com/@teamwarren/excessive-lobbying-tax-fca7cc86a7e5 #5yrsago Apple bans an app because Hong Kong protesters might use it to avoid the murderous, out of control police https://memex.craphound.com/2019/10/02/apple-bans-an-app-because-hong-kong-protesters-might-use-it-to-avoid-the-murderous-out-of-control-police/ #5yrsago The complicated, nuanced story of how racialized French people fought to save their local McDonald?s https://www.npr.org/2019/09/05/758048712/libert-galit-and-french-fries ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Upcoming appearances * Was There Ever an Old, Good Internet? David Graeber Institute (Remote), Oct 3 https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUsduuprjgpG9C4SAenCK4jOsawnkxDrY_-#/registration * ?Come distruggere il capitalismo della sorveglianza? (Pisa/Remote), Oct 12 https://www.internetfestival.it/programma/come-distruggere-il-capitalismo-della-sorveglianza/ * SOSS Fusion (Atlanta), Oct 22 https://sossfusion2024.sched.com/speaker/cory_doctorow.1qm5qfgn * TusCon (Tucson), Nov 8-10 https://tusconscificon.com/ * International Cooperative Alliance (New Delhi), Nov 24 https://icanewdelhi2024.coop/welcome/pages/Programme ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Recent appearances * A Book Talk with Cory Doctorow and Woodrow Hartzog at BU Law https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gkt9dlTX-gs * Rethink: Is the internet getting worse? https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0022z9r * Annie's Book Stop Of Worcester https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYM3WOPOMC0 ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Latest books * 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 * Picks and Shovels: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books, February 2025 * Unauthorized Bread: a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2025 ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Colophon Today's top sources: Currently writing: * Enshittification: a nonfiction book about platform decay for Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Today's progress: 834 words (57028 words total). * 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 Latest podcast: Vigilant (a Little Brother story) https://craphound.com/littlebrother/2024/09/29/vigilant-a-little-brother-story/ This work - excluding any serialized fiction - is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? How to get Pluralistic: Blog (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): Pluralistic.net Newsletter (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://pluralistic.net/plura-list Mastodon (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic Medium (no ads, paywalled): https://doctorow.medium.com/ Twitter (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://twitter.com/doctorow Tumblr (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/tagged/pluralistic "*When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla*" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: OpenPGP_0x9026DBBE1FC237AF.asc Type: application/pgp-keys Size: 3650 bytes Desc: OpenPGP public key URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: OpenPGP_signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 203 bytes Desc: OpenPGP digital signature URL: From doctorow at craphound.com Thu Oct 3 12:36:12 2024 From: doctorow at craphound.com (Cory Doctorow) Date: Thu, 3 Oct 2024 09:36:12 -0700 Subject: [Plura-list] Prime's enshittified advertising Message-ID: <94ffe33e-43c5-4fc9-8c82-a0bdf8fcdaed@craphound.com> Read today's issue online at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/03/mother-may-i/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ Tor Books has just published two new, free "Little Brother" stories: "Vigilant," about creepy surveillance in distance education: https://reactormag.com/spill-cory-doctorow/ And "Spill," about oil pipelines and indigenous landback: https://reactormag.com/vigilant-cory-doctorow/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ Today's links * Prime's enshittified advertising: Don't touch that dial. No, seriously, DON'T. * Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. * This day in history: 2009, 2014, 2019, 2023 * Upcoming appearances: Where to find me. * Recent appearances: Where I've been. * 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. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ?? Prime's enshittified advertising Prime's gonna add more ads. They brought in ads in January, and people didn't cancel their Prime subscriptions, so Amazon figures that they can make Prime even worse and make more money: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/10/amazon-prime-video-is-getting-more-ads-next-year/ The cruelty isn't the point. Money is the point. Every ad that Amazon shows you shifts value away from you - your time, your attention - to the company's shareholders. That's the crux of enshittification. Companies don't enshittify - making their once-useful products monotonically worse - because it amuses them to erode the quality of their offerings. They enshittify them because their products are zero-sum: the things that make them valuable to you (watching videos without ads) make things less valuable to them (because they can't monetize your attention). This isn't new. The internet has always been dominated by intermediaries - platforms - because there are lots more people who want to *use* the internet than are capable of *building* the internet. There's more people who want to write blogs than can make a blogging app. There's more people who want to play and listen to music than can host a music streaming service. There's more people who want to write and read ebooks than want to operate an ebook store or sell an ebooks reader. Despite all the early internet rhetoric about the glories of disintermediation, intermediaries are good, actually: https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/12/direct-the-problem-of-middlemen/ The problem isn't with intermediaries *per se*. The problem arises when intermediaries grow so powerful that they usurp the relationship between the parties they connect. The problem with Uber isn't the use of mobile phones to tell taxis that you're standing on a street somewhere and would like a cab, please. The problem is rampant worker misclassification, regulatory arbitrage, starvation wages, and price-gouging: https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/29/geometry-hates-uber/#toronto-the-gullible There's no problem with publishers, distributors, retailers, printers, and all the other parts of the bookselling ecosystem. While there are a few, rare authors who are capable of performing all of these functions - basically gnawing their books out of whole logs with their teeth - most writers can't, and even the ones who can, don't want to: https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/19/crad-kilodney-was-an-outlier/#intermediation When early internet boosters spoke of disintermediation, what they mostly meant was that it would be harder for intermediaries to capture those relationships - between sellers and buyers, creators and audiences, workers and customers. As Rebecca Giblin and I wrote in our 2022 book *Chokepoint Capitalism*, intermediaries in every sector rely on chokepoints, narrows where they can erect tollbooths: https://chokepointcapitalism.com/ When chokepoints exist, they multiply up and down the supply chain. In the golden age of physical, recorded music, you had several chokepoints that reinforced one another. Limited radio airwaves gave radio stations power over record labels, who had to secretly, illegally bid for prime airspace ("payola"). Retail consolidation - the growth of big record chains - drove consolidation in the distributors who sold to the chains, and the more concentrated distributors became, the more they could squeeze retailers, which drove *even more* consolidation in record stores. The bigger a label was, the more power it had to shove back against the muscle of the stores and the distributors (and the pressing plants, etc). Consolidation in labels also drove consolidation in talent agencies, whose large client rosters gave them power to resist the squeeze from the labels. Consolidation in venues drives consolidation in ticketing and promotion - and vice-versa. But there's two parties to this supply chain who *can't* consolidate: musicians and their fans. With limits on "sectoral bargaining" (where unions can represent workers against *all* the companies in a sector), musicians' unions were limited in their power against key parts of the supply chain, so the creative workers who *made* the workers were easy pickings for labels, talent reps, promoters, ticketers, venues, retailers, etc. Music fans are diffused and dispersed, and organized fan clubs were usually run by the labels, who weren't about to allow those clubs to be used against the labels. This is a perfect case-study in the problems of powerful intermediaries, who move from facilitator to parasite, paying workers less while degrading their products, and then charge customers more for those enshittified products. The excitement about "disintermediation" wasn't so much about *eliminating* intermediaries as it was about *disciplining* them. If there were *lots* of ways to market a product or service, sell it, collect payment for it, and deliver it, then the natural inclination of intermediaries to turn predator would be curbed by the difficulty of corralling their prey into chokepoints. Now that we're a quarter century on from the Napster Wars, we can see how that worked out. Decades of failure to enforce antitrust law allowed a few companies to effectively capture the internet, buying out rivals who were willing to sell, and bankrupting those who wouldn't with illegal tactics like predatory pricing (think of Uber losing $31 billion by subsidizing $0.41 out of every dollar they charged for taxi rides for more than a decade). The market power that platforms gained through consolidation translated into *political* power. When a few companies dominate a sector, they're able to come to agreement on common strategies for dealing with their regulators, and they've got plenty of excess profits to spend on those strategies. First and foremost, platforms used their power to get *more* power, lobbying for even less antitrust enforcement. Additionally, platforms mobilized gigantic sums to secure the right to screw customers (for example, by making binding arbitration clauses in terms of service enforceable) and workers (think of the $225m Uber and Lyft spent on California's Prop 22, which formalized their worker misclassification swindle). So big platforms were able to insulate themselves from the risk of competition ("five giant websites, filled with screenshots of the other four" - Tom Eastman), and from regulation. They were also able to expand and mobilize IP law to prevent anyone from breaking their chokepoints or undoing the abuses that these enabled. This is a good place to get specific about how Prime Video works. There's two ways to get Prime videos: over an app, or in your browser. Both of these streams are encrypted, and that's *really* important here, because of a law - Section 1201 of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act - which makes it *really* illegal to break this kind of encryption (commonly called "Digital Rights Management" or "DRM"). Practically speaking, that means that if a company encrypts its videos, no one is allowed to do anything to those videos, *even things that are legal*, without the company's permission, because doing all those legal things requires breaking the DRM, and breaking the DRM is a *felony* (five years in prison, $500k fine, for a first offense). Copyright law actually gives subscribers to services like Prime a *lot* of rights, and it empowers businesses that offer tools to exercise those rights. Back in 1976, Sony rolled out the Betamax, the first major home video recorder. After an eight-year court battle, the Supreme Court weighed in on VCRs and ruled that it was legal for all of us to record videos at home, both to watch them later, and to build a library of our favorite shows. They also ruled that it was legal for Sony - and by that time, every other electronics company - to make VHS systems, *even if those systems could be used in ways that violated copyright* because they were "capable of sustaining a substantial non-infringing use" (letting you tape shows off your TV). Now, this was more than a decade before the DMCA - and its prohibition on breaking DRM - passed, but even after the DMCA came into effect, there was a *lot* of media that didn't have DRM, so a new generation of tech companies were able to make tools that were "capable of sustaining a substantial non-infringing use" and that didn't have to break any DRM to do it. Think of the Ipod and Itunes, which, together, were sold as a way to rip CDs (which weren't encrypted), and play them back from both your desktop computer and a wildly successful pocket-sized portable device. Itunes even let you stream from one computer to another. The record industry hated this, but they couldn't do anything about it, thanks to the Supreme Court's Betamax ruling. Indeed, they eventually swallowed their bile and started selling their products through the Itunes Music Store. These tracks had DRM and were thus permanently locked to Apple's ecosystem, and Apple immediately used that power to squeeze the labels, who decided they didn't like DRM after all, and licensed all those same tracks to Amazon's DRM-free MP3 store, whose slogan was "DRM: Don't Restrict Me": https://memex.craphound.com/2008/02/01/amazons-anti-drm-tee/ Apple played a funny double role here. In marketing Itunes/Ipods ("Rip, Mix, Burn"), they were the world's biggest cheerleaders for all the things you were allowed to do with copyrighted works, even when the copyright holder objected. But with the Itunes Music Store and its mandatory DRM, the company was *also* one of the world's biggest cheerleaders for wrapping copyrighted works in a thin skin of IP that would allow copyright holders to shut down products like the Ipod and Itunes. Microsoft, predictably enough, focused on the "lock everything to our platform" strategy. Then-CEO Steve Ballmer went on record calling every Ipod owner a "thief" and arguing that every record company should wrap music in Microsoft's Zune DRM, which would allow them to restrict anything they didn't like, even if copyright allowed it (and would also give Microsoft the same abusive leverage over labels that they famously exercised over Windows software companies): https://web.archive.org/web/20050113051129/http://management.silicon.com/itpro/0,39024675,39124642,00.htm In the end, Amazon's approach won. Apple dropped DRM, and Microsoft retired the Zune and shut down its DRM servers, screwing anyone who'd ever bought a Zune track by rendering that music permanently unplayable. Around the same time as all this was going on, *another* company was making history by making uses of copyrighted works that the law allowed, but which the copyright holders *hated*. That company was Tivo, who products did for personal video recorders (PVRs) what Apple's Ipod did for digital portable music players. With a Tivo, you could record any show over cable (which was too expensive and complicated to encrypt) and terrestrial broadcast (which is illegal to encrypt, since those are the public's airwaves, on loan to the TV stations). That meant that you could record *any* show, and keep it forever. What's more, you could *very* easily skip through ads (and rival players quickly emerged that did *automatic* ad-skipping). All of this was legal, but of course the cable companies and broadcasters hated it. Like Ballmer, TV execs called Tivo owners "thieves." But Tivo didn't usher in the ad-supported TV apocalypse that furious, spittle-flecked industry reps insisted it would. Rather, it *disciplined* the TV and cable operators. Tivo owners actually sought out ads that were funny and well-made enough to go viral. Meanwhile, every time the industry decided to increase the amount of advertising in a show, they also increased the likelihood that their viewers would seek out a Tivo, or worse, one of those auto-ad-skipping PVRs. Given all the stink that TV execs raised over PVRs, you'd think that these represented a novel threat. But in fact, the TV industry's appetite for ads had been disciplined by viewers' access to new technology since 1956, when the first TV remotes appeared on the market (executives declared that anyone who changed the channel during an ad-break was a thief). Then came the mute button. Then the wireless remote. Meanwhile, a common VCR use-case - raised in the Supreme Court case - was fast-forwarding ads. At each stage, TV adapted. Ads in TV shows represented a kind of *offer*: "Will you watch this many of these ads in return for a free TV show?" And the remote, the mute button, the wireless remote, the VCR, the PVR, and the ad-skipping PVR all represented a *counter-offer*. As economists would put it, the ability of viewers to make these counteroffers "shifted the equilibrium." If viewers had *no* defensive technology, they might tolerate more ads, but once they were able to enforce their preferences with technology, the industry couldn't enshittify its product to the liminal cusp of "so many ads that the viewer is *right on the brink* of turning off the TV (but not quite)." This is the same equilibrium-shifting dynamic that we see on the open web, where more than 50% of users have installed an ad-blocker. The industry says, "Will you allow this many 'sign up to our mailing list' interrupters, pop ups, pop unders, autoplaying videos and other stuff that users hate but shareholders benefit from" and the ad-blocker makes a counteroffer: "How about 'nah?'": https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/07/adblocking-how-about-nah TV remotes, PVRs and ad-blockers are all examples of "adversarial interoperability" - a new product that plugs into an existing one, extending or modifying its functions without permission from (or even over the objections of) the original manufacturer: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interoperability Adversarial interop creates a powerful disciplining force on platform owners. Once a user grows so frustrated with a product's enshittification that they research, seek out, acquire and learn to use an adversarial interop tool, it's really game over. The printer owner who figures out where to get third-party ink is gone *forever*. Every time a company like HP raises its prices, they have to account for the number of customers who will finally figure out how to use generic ink and *never, ever send another cent to HP*. This is where DMCA 1201 comes into play. Once a product is skinned with DRM, its manufacturers gain the right to prevent you from doing *legal* things, and can use the public's courts and law-enforcement apparatus to punish you for trying. Take HP: as soon as they started adding DRM to their cartridges, they gained the legal power to shut down companies that cloned, refilled or remanufactured their cartridges, and started raising the price of ink - which today sits at more than $10,000/gallon: https://pluralistic.net/2024/09/30/life-finds-a-way/#ink-stained-wretches Using third party ink in your printer isn't illegal (it's your printer, right?). But *making* third party ink for your printer *becomes* illegal once you have to break DRM to do so, and so HP gets to transform tinted water into literally the most expensive fluid on Earth. The ink you use to print your kid's homework costs more than vintage Veuve Cliquot or sperm from a Kentucky Derby-winning thoroughbred. Adversarial interoperability is a powerful tool for shifting the equilibrium between producers, intermediaries and buyers. DRM is an even more powerful way of wrenching that equilibrium *back* towards the intermediary, reducing the share that buyers and sellers are able to eke out of the transaction. Prime Video, of course, is delivered via an app, which means it has DRM. That means that subscribers don't get to exercise the rights afforded to them by copyright - only the rights that Amazon permits them to have. There's no Tivo for Prime, because it would have to break the DRM to record the shows you stream from Prime. That allows Prime to pull *all kinds* of shady shit. For example, every year around this time, Amazon pulls popular Christmas movies from its free-to-watch tier and moves them into pay-per-view, only restoring them in the spring: https://www.reddit.com/r/vudu/comments/1bpzanx/looks_like_amazon_removed_the_free_titles_from/ And of course, Prime sticks ads in its videos. You can't skip these ads - not because it's technically challenging to make a 30-second advance button for a video stream, and doing so wouldn't violate anyone's copyright - but because Amazon doesn't permit you to do so, and the fact that the video is wrapped in DRM makes it a felony to even try. This means that Amazon gets to seek a different equilibrium than TV companies have had to accept since 1956 and the invention of the TV remote. Amazon doesn't have to limit the quantity, volume, and invasiveness of its ads to "less the amount that would drive our subscribers to install and use an ad-skipping plugin." Instead, they can shoot for the much more lucrative equilibrium of "so obnoxious that the viewer is *almost* ready to cancel their subscription (but not quite)." That's pretty much *exactly* how Kelly Day, the Amazon exec in charge of Prime Video, put it to the *Financial Times*: they're increasing the number of ads because "we haven?t really seen a groundswell of people churning out or cancelling": https://www.ft.com/content/f8112991-820c-4e09-bcf4-23b5e0f190a5 At this point, attentive readers might be asking themselves, "Doesn't Amazon have to worry about Prime viewers who watch in their browsers?" After all browsers are built on open standards, and anyone can make one, so there should be browsers that can auto-skip Prime ads, right? Wrong, alas. Back in 2017, the W3C - the organization that makes the most important browser standards - caved to pressure from the entertainment industry and the largest browser companies and created "Encrypted Media Extensions" (EME), a "standard" for video DRM that blocks *all* adversarial interoperability: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/09/open-letter-w3c-director-ceo-team-and-membership This had the almost immediate effect of making it impossible to create an independent browser without licensing proprietary tech from Google - now a convicted monopolist! - who won't give you a license if you implement recording, ad-skipping, or any other legal (but dispreferred) feature: https://blog.samuelmaddock.com/posts/the-end-of-indie-web-browsers/ This means that for Amazon, there's no way to shift value away from the platform to you. The company has locked you in, and has locked out anyone who might offer you a better deal. Companies that know you are technologically defenseless are endlessly inventive in finding ways to make things worse for you to make things better for them. Take Youtube, another DRM-video-serving platform that has jacked up the number of ads you have to sit through in order to watch a video - even as they slash payments to performers. They've got a new move: they're gonna start showing you ads while your video is paused: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2024/09/20/youtube-pause-ads-rollout/75306204007/ That is the kind of fuckery you only come up with when your victory condition is "a service that's *almost* so bad our customers quit (but not quite)." In Amazon's case, the math is even worse. After all, Youtube may have near-total market dominance over a certain segment of the video market, but Prime Video is bundled with Prime Delivery, which the *vast* majority of US households subscribe to. You have to give up a *lot* to cancel your Prime subscription - especially since Amazon's predatory pricing devastated the rest of the retail sector: https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/28/enshittification/#relentless-payola Amazon's founding principle was "customer obsession." Ex-Amazoners tell me that this was more than an empty platitude: arguments over product design were won or lost based on whether they could satisfy the "customer obsession" litmus test. Now, everyone falls short of their ideals, but sticking to your ideals isn't merely a matter of internal discipline, of willpower. Living up to your ideals is a matter of *external* discipline, too. When Amazon no longer had to contend with competitors or regulators, when it was able to use DRM to control its customers and use the law to prevent them from using its products in legal ways, it lost those external sources of discipline. Amazon suppliers have long complained of the company's high-handed treatment of the vendors who supplied it with goods. Its workers have complained bitterly and loudly about the dangerous and oppressive conditions in its warehouses and delivery vans. But Amazon's customers have consistently given Amazon high marks on quality and trustworthiness. The reason Amazon treated its workers and suppliers badly and its customers well wasn't that it liked customers and hated workers and suppliers. Amazon was engaged in a cold-blooded calculus: it understood that treating customers well would give it control over those customers, and that this would translate market power to retain suppliers even as it ripped them off and screwed them over. But now, Amazon has clearly concluded that it no longer needs to keep customers happy in order to retain them. Instead, it's shooting for "keeping customers so angry that they're *almost* ready to take their business elsewhere (but not quite)." You see this in the steady decline of Amazon product search, which preferences the products that pay the biggest bribes for search placement over the best matches: https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/06/attention-rents/#consumer-welfare-queens And you see it in the steady enshittification of Prime Video. Amazon's *character* never changed. The company *always* had a predatory side. But now that monopoly and IP law have insulated it from consequences for its actions, there's no longer any reason to keep the predator in check. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ?? Hey look at this * Who Are the ?Undecided?? https://prospect.org/politics/2024-10-02-who-are-the-undecided/ * PC Floppy Copy Protection: An Interview With Robert McQuaid https://martypc.blogspot.com/2024/09/pc-floppy-copy-protection-interview.html (h/t Jos'h) * You can now download over 33,000 sound effects from the BBC archive https://djmag.com/news/you-can-now-download-over-33000-sound-effects-bbc-archive (h/t Hacker News) ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ?? This day in history #15yrsago HOWTO make a packing tape ghost https://makezine.com/article/craft/how-to-packing-tape-ghost-sculptures/ #10yrsago Animation explains the dangers of Computercop, the malware that US police agencies distribute to the public https://web.archive.org/web/20141003115913/http://fusion.net/video/19094/who-needs-the-nsa-anyone-could-spy-on-your-kids-thanks-to-computercop/ #10yrsago Mobile malware infections race through Hong Kong?s Umbrella Revolution https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/10/year-of-the-rat-chinas-malware-war-on-activists-goes-mobile/ #10yrsago Larry ?Wide Stance? Craig busted (again) https://www.loweringthebar.net/2014/10/larry-craig-cant-catch-a-break.html #5yrsago Straws are a distraction: how the plastics industry successfully got you to blame yourself for pollution https://theintercept.com/2019/10/03/plastics-industry-plastic-pollution/ #5yrsago Resource Generation: rich kids who are determined to give away their parents? money and make America more fair and equal https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/money-and-power/a29008841/rich-kids-revolution-resource-generation/,/a> #5yrsago CN Tower?s management company claims that any picture of the landmark building is a trademark violation https://memex.craphound.com/2019/10/03/cn-towers-management-company-claims-that-any-picture-of-the-landmark-building-is-a-trademark-violation/ #5yrsago What happened to the 2008 bailout money? https://www.propublica.org/article/the-bailout-was-11-years-ago-were-still-tracking-every-penny #5yrsago Tiktok?s internal policies are both weird and terrible https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-time/ #5yrsago ?I just love to solve problems?: how people who work at predatory lenders avoid thinking about the pain they inflict https://newrepublic.com/article/155212/worked-capital-one-five-years-justified-piling-debt-poor-customers #5yrsago Adversarial Interoperability https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interoperability #1yrago Google's enshittification memos https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/03/not-feeling-lucky/#fundamental-laws-of-economics Upcoming appearances (permalink) * ?Come distruggere il capitalismo della sorveglianza? (Pisa/Remote), Oct 12 https://www.internetfestival.it/programma/come-distruggere-il-capitalismo-della-sorveglianza/ * SOSS Fusion (Atlanta), Oct 22 https://sossfusion2024.sched.com/speaker/cory_doctorow.1qm5qfgn * TusCon (Tucson), Nov 8-10 https://tusconscificon.com/ * International Cooperative Alliance (New Delhi), Nov 24 https://icanewdelhi2024.coop/welcome/pages/Programme * ?Come distruggere il capitalismo della sorveglianza? (Pisa/Remote), Oct 12 https://www.internetfestival.it/programma/come-distruggere-il-capitalismo-della-sorveglianza/ * SOSS Fusion (Atlanta), Oct 22 https://sossfusion2024.sched.com/speaker/cory_doctorow.1qm5qfgn * TusCon (Tucson), Nov 8-10 https://tusconscificon.com/ * International Cooperative Alliance (New Delhi), Nov 24 https://icanewdelhi2024.coop/welcome/pages/Programme Recent appearances (permalink) * A Book Talk with Cory Doctorow and Woodrow Hartzog at BU Law https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gkt9dlTX-gs * Rethink: Is the internet getting worse? https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0022z9r * Annie's Book Stop Of Worcester https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYM3WOPOMC0 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 middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2025 Colophon (permalink) Today's top sources: Slashdot (https://slashdot.org). Currently writing: * Enshittification: a nonfiction book about platform decay for Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Today's progress: 750 words (57779 words total). * 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 Latest podcast: Vigilant (a Little Brother story) https://craphound.com/littlebrother/2024/09/29/vigilant-a-little-brother-story/ This work - excluding any serialized fiction - is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution. How to get Pluralistic: Blog (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): Pluralistic.net Newsletter (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://pluralistic.net/plura-list Mastodon (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic Medium (no ads, paywalled): https://doctorow.medium.com/ Twitter (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://twitter.com/doctorow Tumblr (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/tagged/pluralistic "When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: OpenPGP_0x9026DBBE1FC237AF.asc Type: application/pgp-keys Size: 3650 bytes Desc: OpenPGP public key URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: OpenPGP_signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 203 bytes Desc: OpenPGP digital signature URL: From doctorow at craphound.com Mon Oct 7 08:28:30 2024 From: doctorow at craphound.com (Cory Doctorow) Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2024 05:28:30 -0700 Subject: [Plura-list] China hacked Verizon, AT&T and Lumen using the FBI's backdoor Message-ID: Read today's issue online at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/07/foreseeable-outcomes/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ On October 23 at 7PM, I'll be in Decatur, presenting my novel *The Bezzle* at Eagle Eye Books: https://eagleeyebooks.com/event/2024-10-23/cory-doctorow ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ Today's links * China hacked Verizon, AT&T and Lumen using the FBI's backdoor: There's no such thing as a backdoor that only works when 'good guys' use it. * Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. * This day in history: 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019 * Upcoming appearances: Where to find me. * Recent appearances: Where I've been. * 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. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ?? China hacked Verizon, AT&T and Lumen using the FBI's backdoor State-affiliated Chinese hackers penetrated AT&T, Verizon, Lumen and others; they entered their networks and spent months intercepting US traffic - from individuals, firms, government officials, etc - and they did it all without having to exploit any code vulnerabilities. Instead, they used the back door that the FBI requires every carrier to furnish: https://www.wsj.com/tech/cybersecurity/u-s-wiretap-systems-targeted-in-china-linked-hack-327fc63b?st=C5ywbp&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink In 1994, Bill Clinton signed CALEA into law. The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act requires every US telecommunications network to be designed around facilitating access to law-enforcement wiretaps. Previous to CALEA, telecoms operators were often at pains to design their networks to *resist* infiltration and interception. Even if a telco didn't go that far, they were at the very least indifferent to the needs of law enforcement, and attuned instead to building efficient, robust networks. Predictably, CALEA met stiff opposition from powerful telecoms companies as it worked its way through Congress, but the Clinton administration bought them off with hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies to acquire wiretap-facilitation technologies. Immediately, a new industry sprang into being; companies that promised to help the carriers hack themselves, punching back doors into their networks. The pioneers of this dirty business were overwhelmingly founded by ex-Israeli signals intelligence personnel, though they often poached senior American military and intelligence officials to serve as the face of their operations and liase with their former colleagues in law enforcement and intelligence. Telcos weren't the only opponents of CALEA, of course. Security experts - those who weren't hoping to cash in on government pork, anyways - warned that there was no way to make a back door that was only useful to the "good guys" but would keep the "bad guys" out. These experts were - then as now - dismissed as neurotic worriers who simultaneously failed to understand the need to facilitate mass surveillance in order to keep the nation safe, *and* who lacked appropriate faith in American ingenuity. If we can put a man on the moon, surely we can build a security system that selectively fails when a cop needs it to, but stands up to every crook, bully, corporate snoop and foreign government. In other words: "We have faith in you! NERD HARDER!" NERD HARDER! has been the answer ever since CALEA - and related Clinton-era initiatives, like the failed Clipper Chip program, which would have put a spy chip in every computer, and, eventually, every phone and gadget: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipper_chip America may have invented NERD HARDER! but plenty of other countries have taken up the cause. The all-time champion is former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who, when informed that the laws of mathematics dictate that it is impossible to make an encryption scheme that only protects good secrets and not bad ones, replied, "The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia": https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-laws-of-australia-will-trump-the-laws-of-mathematics-turnbull/ CALEA forced a redesign of the foundational, physical layer of the internet. Thankfully, encryption at the protocol layer - in the programs we use - partially counters this deliberately introduced brittleness in the security of all our communications. CALEA can be used to intercept your communications, but mostly what an attacker gets is "metadata" ("so-and-so sent a message of X bytes to such and such") because the data is scrambled and they can't unscramble it, because cryptography actually *works*, unlike back doors. Of course, that's why governments in the EU, the US, the UK and all over the world are *still* trying to ban working encryption, insisting that the back doors they'll install will only let the good guys in: https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/05/theyre-still-trying-to-ban-cryptography/ *Any* back door can be exploited by your adversaries. The Chinese sponsored hacking group know as Salt Typhoon intercepted the communications of hundreds of millions of American residents, businesses, and institutions. From that position, they could do NSA-style metadata-analysis, malware injection, and interception of unencrypted traffic. And they *didn't have to hack anything*, because the US government insists that all networking gear ship *pre-hacked* so that cops can get into it. This isn't even the first time that CALEA back doors have been exploited by a hostile foreign power as a matter of geopolitical skullduggery. In 2004-2005, Greece's telecommunications were under mass surveillance by US spy agencies who wiretapped Greek officials, all the way up to the Prime Minister, in order to mess with the Greek Olympic bid: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_wiretapping_case_2004%E2%80%9305 This is a wild story in *so many* ways. For one thing, CALEA isn't law in Greece! You can totally sell working, secure networking gear in Greece, and in many other countries around the world where they have not passed a stupid CALEA-style law. *However* the US telecoms market is so fucking *huge* that all the manufacturers build CALEA back doors into their gear, no matter where it's destined for. So the US has effectively exported this deliberate insecurity to the whole planet - and used it to screw around with *Olympic bids*, the most penny-ante bullshit imaginable. Now Chinese-sponsored hackers with cool names like "Salt Typhoon" are traipsing around inside US telecoms infrastructure, using the back doors the FBI insisted would be safe. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ?? Hey look at this * Juice Rescue ??? https://juice-rescue.org * Privacy and security in your messages https://opcandado.citizensandtech.org * The Fed Took $3k From You and Gave it to Jamie Dimon https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/monopoly-round-up-the-fed-took-3k ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ?? This day in history #20yrsago How the NSA broke crypto, and created civilian crypto industry https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2004/10/the_legacy_of_d.html #20yrsago Brewster Kahle: Universal access to all human knowledge is possible https://craphound.com/kahleweb20.txt #20yrsago HOWTO break Google Print DRM https://web.archive.org/web/20041011120549/http://vitanuova.loyalty.org/weblog/nb.cgi/view/vitanuova/2004/10/07/2 #15yrsago Japanese court overturns Winny ruling, says file-sharing software is legal even if used for infringement https://web.archive.org/web/20091009232138/http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/news/20091008p2a00m0na016000c.html #15yrsago Robert E Howard collection, HEROES IN THE WIND: revisit your heroic past https://memex.craphound.com/2009/10/08/robert-e-howard-collection-heroes-in-the-wind-revisit-your-heroic-past/ #15yrsago The criticism that Ralph Lauren doesn?t want you to see! https://memex.craphound.com/2009/10/06/the-criticism-that-ralph-lauren-doesnt-want-you-to-see/ #15yrsago Scott Westerfeld?s Leviathan: kick-ass young adult steampunk series starts with a bang, a hiss and a clank https://memex.craphound.com/2009/10/06/scott-westerfelds-leviathan-kick-ass-young-adult-steampunk-series-starts-with-a-bang-a-hiss-and-a-clank/ #10yrsago Profile of Daniel Pinkwater, ?Pynchon for kids? https://forward.com/culture/206667/how-daniel-pinkwater-became-my-own-personal-guru/ #10yrsago Sore losers: How casinos went after two guys who found a video poker bug https://www.wired.com/2014/10/cheating-video-poker/ #10yrsago Fixing the unfixable USB bug https://www.wired.com/2014/10/unpatchable-usb-malware-now-patchsort/ #10yrsago 20 meaningful things you can do about climate change http://thischangeseverything.org/twenty-things-you-can-do-to-address-the-climate-crisis/ #10yrsago 10% of Americans have 10 or more alcoholic drinks every day https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/09/25/think-you-drink-a-lot-this-chart-will-tell-you/ #10yrsago $35 Firefox OS smartphone ? back to the drawing board https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/10/testing-a-35-firefox-os-phone-how-bad-could-it-be/ #5yrsago For the first time ever, taxes on the 400 richest Americans were lower than taxes on everyone else https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/10/06/opinion/income-tax-rate-wealthy.html #5yrsago Supreme Court greenlights lawsuit over Amazon?s wage-theft from warehouse workers https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-amazon-com/u-s-supreme-court-rejects-amazon-warehouse-worker-wage-appeal-idUSKBN1WM1FI/ #5yrsago Bernie Blindness: a subreddit for noting the way press narratives ignore or smear Bernie Sanders https://www.reddit.com/r/bernieblindness/top/ #5yrsago Checkm8: an ?unstoppable? Iphone jailbreaking crack https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/09/developer-of-checkm8-explains-why-idevice-jailbreak-exploit-is-a-game-changer/ #5yrsago After an injunction against Pacifica radio, New York?s WBAI is back on the air https://twitter.com/2600/status/1181423565389942786 #5yrsago How the ?Varsity Blues? admissions scam punished deserving, hard working kids so that mediocre kids of the super-rich could prosper https://memex.craphound.com/2019/10/08/how-the-varsity-blues-admissions-scam-punished-deserving-hard-working-kids-so-that-mediocre-kids-of-the-super-rich-could-prosper/ #5yrsago Facebook?s 2016 election billboards: Buy all your elections with us! https://twitter.com/MarietjeSchaake/status/1180166896294887424 #5yrsago Podcast: Why do people believe the Earth is flat? https://ia601006.us.archive.org/35/items/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_311/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_311_-_Why_do_people_believe_the_Earth_is_flat.mp3 #5yrsago The cloud vs humanity: Adobe terminates every software license in Venezuela, keeps Venezuelans? money https://helpx.adobe.com/la/x-productkb/policy-pricing/executive-order-venezuela.html #5yrsago How this fine gentleman convinced me to donate $300 to Elizabeth Warren https://memex.craphound.com/2019/10/06/how-this-fine-gentleman-convinced-me-to-donate-300-to-elizabeth-warren/ #5yrsago The corrupt Brazilian prosecutors who locked up Lula now want to release him, to make him less sympathetic https://memex.craphound.com/2019/10/06/the-corrupt-brazilian-prosecutors-who-locked-up-lula-now-want-to-release-him-to-make-him-less-sympathetic/ #5yrsago Hi-rez, open-licensed recreation of the 1968 Disneyland souvenir map https://ia803109.us.archive.org/7/items/disneylandmap1968_201910/DisneylandMap1968Full.jpg ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ?? Upcoming appearances * ?Come distruggere il capitalismo della sorveglianza? (Pisa/Remote), Oct 12 https://www.internetfestival.it/programma/come-distruggere-il-capitalismo-della-sorveglianza/ * OKFN Tech We Want Online Summit (Remote), Oct 18 https://okfn.org/en/events/the-tech-we-want-online-summit/ * SOSS Fusion (Atlanta), Oct 22 https://sossfusion2024.sched.com/speaker/cory_doctorow.1qm5qfgn * Eagle Eye Books (Decatur), Oct 23 https://eagleeyebooks.com/event/2024-10-23/cory-doctorow * TusCon (Tucson), Nov 8-10 https://tusconscificon.com/ * International Cooperative Alliance (New Delhi), Nov 24 https://icanewdelhi2024.coop/welcome/pages/Programme ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ?? Recent appearances * Go Fact Yourself https://maximumfun.org/episodes/go-fact-yourself/ep-158-aida-rodriguez-cory-doctorow/ * The great decline of everything online (Lately podcast) https://www.theglobeandmail.com/podcasts/lately/article-cory-doctorow-podcast-interview/ * A Book Talk with Cory Doctorow and Woodrow Hartzog at BU Law https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gkt9dlTX-gs ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ?? Latest books * 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 * Picks and Shovels: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books, February 2025 * Unauthorized Bread: a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2025 ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ?? Colophon Today's top sources: Matt Blaze (https://www.mattblaze.org/). Currently writing: * Enshittification: a nonfiction book about platform decay for Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Today's progress: words ( words total). * 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 FEB 2025 Latest podcast: Spill, part one (a Little Brother story) https://craphound.com/littlebrother/2024/10/06/spill-part-one-a-little-brother-story/ This work - excluding any serialized fiction - is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ?? How to get Pluralistic: Blog (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): Pluralistic.net Newsletter (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://pluralistic.net/plura-list Mastodon (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic Medium (no ads, paywalled): https://doctorow.medium.com/ Twitter (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://twitter.com/doctorow Tumblr (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/tagged/pluralistic "*When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla*" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: OpenPGP_0x9026DBBE1FC237AF.asc Type: application/pgp-keys Size: 3650 bytes Desc: OpenPGP public key URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: OpenPGP_signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 203 bytes Desc: OpenPGP digital signature URL: From doctorow at craphound.com Tue Oct 8 12:39:34 2024 From: doctorow at craphound.com (Cory Doctorow) Date: Tue, 8 Oct 2024 09:39:34 -0700 Subject: [Plura-list] Google's new phones can't stop phoning home Message-ID: Read today's issue online at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/08/water-thats-not-wet/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ On October 23 at 7PM, I'll be in Decatur, presenting my novel *The Bezzle* at Eagle Eye Books: https://eagleeyebooks.com/event/2024-10-23/cory-doctorow ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ Today's links * Google's new phones can't stop phoning home: The call is coming from inside the house. * Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. * This day in history: 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019, 2023 * Upcoming appearances: Where to find me. * Recent appearances: Where I've been. * 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. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Google's new phones can't stop phoning home One of the most brazen lies of Big Tech is that people *like* commercial surveillance, a fact you can verify for yourself by simply observing how many people end up using products that spy on them. If they didn't like spying, they wouldn't opt into being spied on. This lie has spread to the law enforcement and national security agencies, who treasure Big Tech's surveillance as an off-the-books trove of warrantless data that no court would *ever* permit them to gather on their own. Back in 2017, I found myself at SXSW, debating an FBI agent who was defending the Bureau's gigantic facial recognition database, which, he claimed, contained the faces of virtually every American: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/mar/11/sxsw-facial-recognition-biometrics-surveillance-panel The agent insisted that the FBI had acquired all those faces through legitimate means, by accessing public sources of people's faces. In other words, we'd all opted in to FBI facial recognition surveillance. "Sure," I said, "to opt out, just don't have a face." This pathology is endemic to neoliberal thinking, which insists that all our political matters can be reduced to *economic* ones, specifically, the kind of economic questions that can be mathematically modeled and empirically tested. It would be great if all our thorniest problems could be solved like mathematical equations. Unfortunately, there are key elements of these systems that *can't* be reliably quantified and turned into mathematical operators, especially *power*. The fact that someone did something tells you nothing about whether they *chose* to do so - to understand whether someone was coerced or made a free choice, you have to consider the power relationships involved. Conservatives hate this idea. They want to live in a neat world of "revealed preferences," where the fact that you're working in a job where you're regularly exposed to carcinogens, or that you've stayed with a spouse who beats the shit out of you, or that you're homeless, or that you're addicted to Oxy, is a matter of *choice*. Monopolies exist because we all love the monopolist's product best, not because they've got monopoly power. Jobs that pay starvation wages exist because people want to work full time for so little money that they need food-stamps just to survive. Intervening in any of these situations is "woke paternalism," where the government thinks it knows better than you and intervenes to take away your right to consume unsafe products, get maimed at work, or have your jaw broken by your husband. Which is why neoliberals insist that politics should be reduced to economics, and that economics should be carried out as if power didn't exist: https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/05/farrago/#jeffty-is-five Nowhere is this stupid trick more visible than in the surveillance fight. For example, Google claims that it tracks your location because you asked it to, by using Google products that make use of your location without clicking an opt out button. In reality, Google has the power to simply ignore your preferences about location tracking. In 2021, the Arizona Attorney General's privacy case against Google yielded a bunch of internal memos, including memos from Google's senior product manager for location services Jen Chai complaining that she had turned off location tracking in *three* places and was *still* being tracked: https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/01/you-are-here/#goog Multiple googlers complained about this: they'd gone through dozens of preference screens, hunting for "don't track my location" checkboxes, and *still* they found that they were being tracked. These were people who worked under Chai *on the location services team*. If the head of that team, and her subordinates, couldn't figure out how to opt out of location tracking, what chance did you have? Despite all this, I've found myself continuing to use stock Google Pixel phones running stock Google Android. There were three reasons for this: First and most importantly: security. While I worry about Google tracking me, I am as worried (or more) about foreign governments, random hackers, and dedicated attackers gaining access to my phone. Google's appetite for my personal data knows no bounds, but at least the company is serious about patching defects in the Pixel line. Second: coercion. There are a *lot* of apps that I need to run - to pay for parking, say, or to access my credit union or control my rooftop solar - that either won't run on jailbroken Android phones or require constant tweaking to keep running. Finally: time. I already have the equivalent of three full time jobs and struggle every day to complete my essential tasks, including managing complex health issues and being there for my family. The time I take out of my schedule to actively manage a de-Googled Android would come at the expense of either my professional or personal life. And despite Google's enshittificatory impulses, the Pixels are reliably high-quality, robust phones that get the hell out of the way and let me do my job. The Pixels are Google's flagship electronic products, and the company acts like it. Until now. A new report from Cybernews reveals just how much data the next generation Pixel 9 phones collect and transmit to Google, without any user intervention, and in defiance of the owner's express preferences to the contrary: https://cybernews.com/security/google-pixel-9-phone-beams-data-and-awaits-commands/ The Pixel 9 phones home *every 15 minutes*, even when it's not in use, sharing "location, email address, phone number, network status, and other telemetry." Additionally, every 40 minutes, the new Pixels transmit "firmware version, whether connected to WiFi or using mobile data, the SIM card Carrier, and the user?s email address." Even further, even if you've never opened Google Photos, the phone contacts Google Photos? Face Grouping API at regular intervals. Another process periodically contacts Google's Voice Search servers, even if you never use Voice Search, transmitting "the number of times the device was restarted, the time elapsed since powering on, and a list of apps installed on the device, including the sideloaded ones." All of this is *without* any consent. Or rather, without any consent beyond the "revealed preference" of just buying a phone from Google ("to opt out, don't have a face"). What's more, the Cybernews report probably *undercounts* the amount of passive surveillance the Pixel 9 undertakes. To monitor their testbench phone, Cybernews had to root it and install Magisk, a monitoring tool. In order to do that, they had to disable the AI features that Google touts as the centerpiece of Pixel 9. AI is, of course, notoriously data-hungry and privacy invasive, and all the above represents the data collection the Pixel 9 undertakes *without* any of its AI nonsense. It just gets worse. The Pixel 9 also routinely connects to a "CloudDPC" server run by Google. Normally, this is a server that an enterprise customer would connect its employees' devices to, allowing the company to push updates to employees' phones without any action on their part. But Google has designed the Pixel 9 so that privately owned phones do the same thing with Google, allowing for zero-click, no-notification software changes on devices that you own. This is the kind of measure that works well, but fails badly. It assumes that the risk of Pixel owners failing to download a patch outweighs the risk of a Google insider pushing out a malicious update. Why would Google do that? Well, perhaps a rogue employee wants to spy on his ex-girlfriend: https://www.wired.com/2010/09/google-spy/ Or maybe a Google executive wins an internal power struggle and decrees that Google's products should be made shittier so you need to take more steps to solve your problems, which generates more chances to serve ads: https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/24/naming-names/#prabhakar-raghavan Or maybe Google capitulates to an authoritarian government who orders them to install a malicious update to facilitate a campaign of oppressive spying and control: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonfly_(search_engine) Indeed, merely by installing a feature that can be abused this way, Google *encourages* bad actors to abuse it. It's a lot harder for a government or an asshole executive to demand a malicious downgrade of a Google product if users have to accept that downgrade before it takes effect. By removing that choice, Google has greased the skids for malicious downgrades, from both internal and external sources. Google will insist that these anti-features - both the spying and the permissionless updating - are *essential*, that it's literally impossible to imagine building a phone that doesn't do these things. This is one of Big Tech's stupidest gambits. It's the same ruse that Zuck deploys when he says that it's impossible to chat with a friend or plan a potluck dinner without letting Facebook spy on you. It's Tim Cook's insistence that there's no way to have a safe, easy to use, secure computing environment without giving Apple a veto over what software you can run and who can fix your device - and that this veto *must* come with a 30% rake from every dollar you spend on your phone. The thing is, we know it's possible to separate these things, because *they used to be separate*. Facebook used to sell itself as the privacy-forward alternative to Myspace, where they would *never* spy on you (not coincidentally, this is also the best period in Facebook's history, from a user perspective): https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3247362 And we know it's possible to make a Pixel that doesn't do all this nonsense because Google makes other Pixel phones that don't do all this nonsense, like the Pixel 8 that's in my pocket as I type these words. This doesn't stop Big Tech from gaslighting* us and insisting that demanding a Pixel that doesn't phone home four times an hour is like demanding water that isn't wet. *pronounced "jass-lighting" Even before I read this report, I was thinking about what I would do when I broke my current phone (I'm a klutz and I travel a lot, so my gadgets break pretty frequently). Google's latest OS updates have already crammed a bunch of AI bullshit into my Pixel 8 (and Google puts the "invoke AI bullshit" button in the spot where the "do something useful" button used to be, meaning I accidentally pull up the AI bullshit screen several times/day). Assuming no catastrophic phone disasters, I've got a little while before my next phone, but I reckon when it's time to upgrade, I'll be switching to a phone from the @calyxinstitute at mastodon.social. Calyx is an incredible, privacy-focused nonprofit whose founder, Nicholas Merrill, was the first person to successfully resist one of the Patriot Act's "sneek-and-peek" warrants, spending 11 years defending his users' privacy from secret - and, ultimately, unconstitutional - surveillance: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/03/depth-judge-illstons-remarkable-order-striking-down-nsl-statute Merrill and Calyx have tapped into various obscure corners of US wireless spectrum licenses that require major carriers to give ultra-cheap access to nonprofits, allowing them to offer unlimited, surveillance-free, Net Neutrality respecting wireless data packages: https://memex.craphound.com/2016/09/22/i-have-found-a-secret-tunnel-that-runs-underneath-the-phone-companies-and-emerges-in-paradise/ I've been a very happy Calyx user in years gone by, but ultimately, I slipped into the default of using stock Pixel handsets with Google's Fi service. But even as I've grown increasingly uncomfortable with the direction of Google's Android and Pixel programs, I've grown increasingly *impressed* with Calyx's offerings. The company has graduated from selling mobile hotspots with unlimited data SIMs to selling jailbroken, de-Googled Pixel phones that have all the hardware reliability of a Pixel, coupled with an alternative app suite and your choice of a Calyx SIM and/or a Calyx hotspot: https://calyxinstitute.org/ Every time I see what Calyx is up to, I think, *dammit, it's really time to de-Google my phone*. With the Pixel 9 descending to new depths of enshittification, that decision just got a lot easier. When my current phone croaks, I'll be talking to Calyx. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Hey look at this * Silicon Valley, the New Lobbying Monster https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/10/14/silicon-valley-the-new-lobbying-monster * Economies of Scale in Peer-to-Peer Networks https://blog.dshr.org/2024/10/it-was-ten-years-ago-today.html * Frogger Walkable City https://woe-industries.itch.io/frogger-walkable-city (h/t Boing Boing) ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? This day in history #20yrsago HOWTO censor the net with a Hotmail account https://web.archive.org/web/20041023150004/http://www.bof.nl/docs/researchpaperSANE.pdf #20yrsago Pratchett?s ?Going Postal?: Graft, hackers, and a semaphore Internet https://memex.craphound.com/2004/10/09/pratchetts-going-postal-graft-hackers-and-a-semaphore-internet/ #20yrsago Both Presidential candidates arrested while serving papers on CPD https://web.archive.org/web/20041009213011/https://badnarik.org/supporters/blog/2004/10/08/michael-badnarik-arrested/ #15yrsago Marc Laidlaw?s ?Sleepy Joe? ? sf story comic podcast about war, cable access and human bombs https://escapepod.org/2009/10/08/ep219-sleepy-joe/ #15yrsago Junky Styling: a manual for thrift-shop clothes-remixers https://memex.craphound.com/2009/10/09/junky-styling-a-manual-for-thrift-shop-clothes-remixers/ #10yrsago Kids who sext more likely to be comfortable with their sexuality https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article-abstract/47/Supplement_1/229/78000/The-Relationships-Between-Adrenal-Cortical?redirectedFrom=PDF #10yrsago SWAT team murders burglary victim because burglar claimed he found meth https://www.techdirt.com/2014/10/08/swat-team-raids-house-kills-homeowner-because-criminal-who-burglarized-house-told-them-to/ #10yrsago Malware needs to know if it?s in the Matrix https://web.archive.org/web/20141009164227/http://thestack.com/mimicry-in-malware-giovanni-vigna-081014 #5yrsago After banning working cryptography and raiding whistleblowers, Australia?s spies ban speakers from national infosec conference https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/oct/09/melbourne-cyber-conference-organisers-pressured-speaker-to-edit-biased-talk #5yrsago SQL Murder Mystery: teaching SQL concepts with a mystery game https://github.com/NUKnightLab/sql-mysteries #5yrsago Washington establishment freaks out as Modern Monetary Theory gains currency https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-07/economists-worry-that-mmt-is-winning-the-argument-in-washington #5yrsago Hunter Biden?s Ukraine gig was corrupt, just not in the way Republican conspiracists claim it was https://theintercept.com/2019/10/09/joe-hunter-biden-family-money/ #5yrsago Gamers propose punishing Blizzard for its anti-Hong Kong partisanship by flooding it with GDPR requests https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/df0zx5/upset_about_blizzards_hk_ruling_heres_what_to_do/ #1yrago How Google's trial secrecy lets it control the coverage https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/09/working-the-refs/#but-id-have-to-kill-you ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Upcoming appearances * ?Come distruggere il capitalismo della sorveglianza? (Pisa/Remote), Oct 12 https://www.internetfestival.it/programma/come-distruggere-il-capitalismo-della-sorveglianza/ * OKFN Tech We Want Online Summit (Remote), Oct 18 https://okfn.org/en/events/the-tech-we-want-online-summit/ * SOSS Fusion (Atlanta), Oct 22 https://sossfusion2024.sched.com/speaker/cory_doctorow.1qm5qfgn * Eagle Eye Books (Decatur), Oct 23 https://eagleeyebooks.com/event/2024-10-23/cory-doctorow * TusCon (Tucson), Nov 8-10 https://tusconscificon.com/ * International Cooperative Alliance (New Delhi), Nov 24 https://icanewdelhi2024.coop/welcome/pages/Programme * ISSA-LA Holiday Celebration keynote (Los Angeles), Dec 18 https://issala.org/event/issa-la-december-18-dinner-meeting/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Recent appearances * Go Fact Yourself https://maximumfun.org/episodes/go-fact-yourself/ep-158-aida-rodriguez-cory-doctorow/ * The great decline of everything online (Lately podcast) https://www.theglobeandmail.com/podcasts/lately/article-cory-doctorow-podcast-interview/ * A Book Talk with Cory Doctorow and Woodrow Hartzog at BU Law https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gkt9dlTX-gs ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Latest books * 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 * Picks and Shovels: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books, February 2025 * Unauthorized Bread: a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2025 ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Colophon Today's top sources: Currently writing: * Enshittification: a nonfiction book about platform decay for Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Today's progress: 752 words (60068 words total). * 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 FEB 2025 Latest podcast: Spill, part one (a Little Brother story) https://craphound.com/littlebrother/2024/10/06/spill-part-one-a-little-brother-story/ This work - excluding any serialized fiction - is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? How to get Pluralistic: Blog (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): Pluralistic.net Newsletter (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://pluralistic.net/plura-list Mastodon (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic Medium (no ads, paywalled): https://doctorow.medium.com/ Twitter (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://twitter.com/doctorow Tumblr (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/tagged/pluralistic "*When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla*" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: OpenPGP_0x9026DBBE1FC237AF.asc Type: application/pgp-keys Size: 3650 bytes Desc: OpenPGP public key URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: OpenPGP_signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 203 bytes Desc: OpenPGP digital signature URL: From doctorow at craphound.com Thu Oct 10 14:58:29 2024 From: doctorow at craphound.com (Cory Doctorow) Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2024 11:58:29 -0700 Subject: [Plura-list] Cars bricked by bankrupt EV company will stay bricked Message-ID: <99cf537b-0201-4250-8c98-1a0a96886116@craphound.com> Read today's issue online at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/10/software-based-car/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ On October 23 at 7PM, I'll be in Decatur, presenting my novel *The Bezzle* at Eagle Eye Books: https://eagleeyebooks.com/event/2024-10-23/cory-doctorow ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ Today's links * Cars bricked by bankrupt EV company will stay bricked: "Software-based car" is a warning, not a slogan. * Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. * This day in history: 2009, 2014, 2019, 2023 * Upcoming appearances: Where to find me. * Recent appearances: Where I've been. * 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. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Cars bricked by bankrupt EV company will stay bricked There are few phrases in the modern lexicon more accursed than "software-based car," and yet, this is how the failed EV maker Fisker billed its products, which retailed for $40-70k in the few short years before the company collapsed, shut down its servers, and bricked all those "software-based cars": https://insideevs.com/news/723669/fisker-inc-bankruptcy-chapter-11-official/ Fisker billed itself as a "capital light" manufacturer, meaning that it didn't particularly make anything - rather, it "designed" cars that other companies built, allowing Fisker to focus on "experience," which is where the "software-based car" comes in. Virtually every subsystem in a Fisker car needs (or rather, needed) to periodically connect with its servers, either for regular operations or diagnostics and repair, creating frequent problems with brakes, airbags, shifting, battery management, locking and unlocking the doors: https://www.businessinsider.com/fisker-owners-worry-about-vehicles-working-bankruptcy-2024-4 Since Fisker's bankruptcy, people with even minor problems with their Fisker EVs have found themselves owning expensive, inert lumps of conflict minerals and auto-loan debt; as one Fisker owner described it, "It's literally a lawn ornament right now": https://www.businessinsider.com/fisker-owners-describe-chaos-to-keep-cars-running-after-bankruptcy-2024-7 This is, in many ways, typical Internet-of-Shit nonsense, but it's compounded by Fisker's capital light, all-outsource model, which led to extremely unreliable vehicles that have been plagued by recalls. The bankrupt company has proposed that vehicle owners should have to pay cash for these recalls, in order to reserve the company's capital for its creditors - a plan that is clearly illegal: https://www.veritaglobal.net/fisker/document/2411390241007000000000005 This isn't even the first time Fisker has done this! Ten years ago, founder Henrik Fisker started another EV company called Fisker Automotive, which went bankrupt in 2014, leaving the company's "Karma" (no, really) long-range EVs (which were unreliable and prone to bursting into flames) in limbo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisker_Karma Which raises the question: why did investors reward Fisker's initial incompetence by piling in for a second attempt? I think the answer lies in the very factor that has made Fisker's failure so hard on its customers: the "software-based car." Investors *love* the sound of a "software-based car" because they understand that a gadget that is connected to the cloud is ripe for rent-extraction, because with software comes a bundle of "IP rights" that let the company control its customers, critics and competitors: https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/ A "software-based car" gets to mobilize the state to enforce its "IP," which allows it to force its customers to use authorized mechanics (who can, in turn, be price-gouged for licensing and diagnostic tools). "IP" can be used to shut down manufacturers of third party parts. "IP" allows manufacturers to revoke features that came with your car and charge you a monthly subscription fee for them. All sorts of features can be sold as downloadable content, and clawed back when title to the car changes hands, so that the new owners have to buy them again. "Software based cars" are easier to repo, making them perfect for the subprime auto-lending industry. And of course, "software-based cars" can gather *much* more surveillance data on drivers, which can be sold to sleazy, unregulated data-brokers: https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-demon Unsurprisingly, there's a large number of Fisker cars that never sold, which the bankruptcy estate is seeking a buyer for. For a minute there, it looked like they'd found one: American Lease, which was looking to acquire the deadstock Fiskers for use as leased fleet cars. But now that deal seems dead, because no one can figure out how to restart Fisker's servers, and these vehicles are bricks without server access: https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/08/fisker-bankruptcy-hits-major-speed-bump-as-fleet-sale-is-now-in-question/ It's hard to say why the company's servers are so intransigent, but there's a clue in the chaotic way that the company wound down its affairs. The company's final days sound like a scene from the last days of the German Democratic Republic, with apparats from the failing state charging about in chaos, without any plans for keeping things running: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/07/east-germany-stasi-surveillance-documents/ As it imploded, Fisker cycled through a string of Chief Financial officers, losing track of millions of dollars at a time: https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/31/fisker-collapse-investigation-ev-ocean-suv-henrik-geeta/ When Fisker's landlord regained possession of its HQ, they found "complete disarray," including improperly stored drums of toxic waste: https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/05/fiskers-hq-abandoned-in-complete-disarray-with-apparent-hazardous-waste-clay-models-left-behind/ And while Fisker's implosion is particularly messy, the fact that it landed in bankruptcy is entirely unexceptional. Most businesses fail (*eventually*) and most startups fail (*quickly*). Despite this, businesses - even those in heavily regulated sectors like automotive regulation - are allowed to design products and undertake operations that are not designed to outlast the (likely short-lived) company. After the 2008 crisis and the collapse of financial institutions like Lehman Brothers, finance regulators acquired a renewed interest in succession planning. Lehman consisted of over 6,000 separate corporate entities, each one representing a bid to evade regulation and/or taxation. Unwinding that complex hairball took *years*, during which the entities that entrusted Lehman with their funds - pensions, charitable institutions, etc - were unable to access their money. To avoid repeats of this catastrophe, regulators began to insist that banks produce "living wills" - plans for unwinding their affairs in the event of catastrophe. They had to undertake "stress tests" that simulated a wind-down as planned, both to make sure the plan worked and to estimate how long it would take to execute. Then banks were required to set aside sufficient capital to keep the lights on while the plan ran on. This regulation has been indifferently enforced. Banks spent the intervening years insisting that they are capable of prudently self-regulating without all this interference, something they continue to insist upon even after the Silicon Valley Bank collapse: https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/15/mon-dieu-les-guillotines/#ceci-nes-pas-une-bailout The fact that the rules haven't been enforced tells us nothing about whether the rules would work if they *were* enforced. A string of high-profile bankruptcies of companies who had no succession plans and whose collapse stands to materially harm large numbers of people tells us that *something* has to be done about this. Take 23andme, the creepy genomics company that enticed millions of people into sending them their genetic material (even if you aren't a 23andme customer, they probably have most of your genome, thanks to relatives who sent in cheek-swabs). 23andme is now bankrupt, and its bankruptcy estate is shopping for a buyer who'd like to commercially exploit all that juicy genetic data, even if that is to the detriment of the people it came from. What's more, the bankruptcy estate is refusing to destroy samples from people who want to opt out of this future sale: https://bourniquelaw.com/2024/10/09/data-23-and-me/ On a smaller scale, there's Juicebox, a company that makes EV chargers, who are exiting the North American market and shutting down their servers, killing the advanced functionality that customers paid extra for when they chose a Juicebox product: https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/2/24260316/juicebox-ev-chargers-enel-x-way-closing-discontinued-app I actually owned a Juicebox, which ultimately caught fire and melted down, either due to a manufacturing defect or to the criminal ineptitude of Treeium, the worst solar installers in Southern California (or both): https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/27/here-comes-the-sun-king/#sign-here Projects like Juice Rescue are trying to reverse-engineer the Juicebox server infrastructure and build and alternative: https://juice-rescue.org/ This would be much simpler if Juicebox's manufacturer, Enel X Way, had been required to file a living will that explained how its customers would go on enjoying their property when and if the company discontinued support, exited the market, or went bankrupt. That might be a big lift for every little tech startup (though it would be superior than trying to get justice *after* the company fails). But in regulated sectors like automotive manufacture or genomic analysis, a regulation that says, "Either design your products and services to fail safely, or escrow enough cash to keep the lights on for the duration of an orderly wind-down in the event that you shut down" would be perfectly reasonable. Companies could make "software based cars" but the more "software based" the car was, the more funds they'd have to escrow to transition their servers when they shut down (and the lest capital they'd have to build the car). Such a rule should be *in addition* to more muscular rules simply banning the most abusive practices, like the Oregon state Right to Repair bill, which bans the "parts pairing" that makes repairing a Fisker car so onerous: https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/27/24097042/right-to-repair-law-oregon-sb1596-parts-pairing-tina-kotek-signed Or the Illinois state biometric privacy law, which strictly limits the use of the kind of genomic data that 23andme collected: https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=3004 Failing to take action on these abusive practices is dangerous - and not just to the people who get burned by them. Every time a genomics research project turns into a privacy nightmare, that salts the earth for future medical research, making it *much* harder to conduct population-scale research, which *can* be carried out in privacy-preserving ways, and which pays *huge* scientific dividends that we all benefit from: https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/01/the-palantir-will-see-you-now/#public-private-partnership Just as Fisker's outrageous ripoff will make life harder for *good* cleantech companies: https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/26/unplanned-obsolescence/#better-micetraps If people are convinced that new, climate-friendly tech is a cesspool of grift and extraction, it will punish those firms that are making routine, breathtaking, exciting (and extremely vital) breakthroughs: https://www.euronews.com/green/2024/10/08/norways-national-football-stadium-has-the-worlds-largest-vertical-solar-roof-how-does-it-w ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Hey look at this * Wait Til Daddy Gets Home: America's Sad, Craven, Masochistic Relationship with the Republican Party https://catvalente.substack.com/p/wait-til-daddy-gets-home-americas * Molly White at XOXO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTaeVVAvk-c * FTC Findings on Commercial Surveillance Can Lead to Better Alternatives https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/10/ftc-findings-commercial-surveillance-can-lead-better-alternatives ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? This day in history #15yrsago Hallowe?en is safe https://freerangekids.wordpress.com/2009/10/12/goodbye-halloween-hello-safety/ #15yrsago Big Entertainment?s century-long technophobic binge https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2009/10/100-years-of-big-content-fearing-technologyin-its-own-words/ #10yrsago Laura Poitras?s Citizenfour: the real story of Edward Snowden https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/nyff-edward-snowden-doc-citizenfour-740060/ #10yrsago There?s no back door that only works for good guys https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/09/crypto-wars-redux-why-the-fbis-desire-to-unlock-your-private-life-must-be-resisted #10yrsago Buzz Lightyear cited in legal brief https://www.loweringthebar.net/2014/10/how-to-cite-buzz-lightyear.html #5yrsago Bruce Schneier makes the case for ?public interest technologists? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2jn4pXDZn0 #5yrsago Computer historians crack passwords of Unix?s early pioneers https://inbox.vuxu.org/tuhs/87bluxpqy0.fsf at vuxu.org/ #5yrsago Apple?s capitulation over Hong Kong protest app isn?t new; and the NBA is racing it to the bottom https://memex.craphound.com/2019/10/10/apples-capitulation-over-hong-kong-protest-app-isnt-new-and-the-nba-is-racing-it-to-the-bottom/ #5yrsago The Sacklers come to Sesame Street as a muppet is revealed to have had an addicted mother https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news-other-healthcare/465124-sesame-street-to-reveal-muppets-mom-suffered/ #5yrsago Verizon dumps another Oath property for peanuts: RIP, Mapquest https://searchengineland.com/a-eulogy-for-mapquest-322945 #5yrsago Hiding secrets in online text with zero-width characters https://web.archive.org/web/20200516062538/https://git.planetrenox.com/inzerosight/browser-extension #5yrsago Ikea?s founder was a Nazi, and never stopped praising the Nazi leader he called ?Best Brother? https://lithub.com/on-the-far-right-past-of-ingvar-kamprad-founder-of-ikea/ #5yrsago Kelly Link and Gavin Grant have bought a bookstore! https://www.bookweb.org/news/author-kelly-link-gavin-j-grant-open-book-moon-easthampton-massachusetts-574432 #5yrsago Part two of my novella ?Martian Chronicles? on Escape Pod: who cleans the toilets in libertopia? https://escapepod.org/2019/10/10/escape-pod-701-martian-chronicles-part-2/ #5yrsago ?13 years later, World of Warcraft is STILL telling queer guilds they?re not allowed to advertise their queerness https://memex.craphound.com/2019/10/11/%E2%80%8B13-years-later-world-of-warcraft-is-still-telling-queer-guilds-theyre-not-allowed-to-advertise-their-queerness/ #5yrsago Fatboy Slim mashes up Greta Thunberg?s UN speech https://twitter.com/Independent/status/1181950192960131074 #1yrago Stellantis wants to make scabbing woke https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/11/equal-opportunity-class-war/#inclusive-scabbing #1yrago Underground Empire: Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman's must-read account of "How America Weaponized the World Economy" https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/10/weaponized-interdependence/#the-other-swifties Upcoming appearances (permalink) * ?Come distruggere il capitalismo della sorveglianza? (Pisa/Remote), Oct 12 https://www.internetfestival.it/programma/come-distruggere-il-capitalismo-della-sorveglianza/ * OKFN Tech We Want Online Summit (Remote), Oct 18 https://okfn.org/en/events/the-tech-we-want-online-summit/ * SOSS Fusion (Atlanta), Oct 22 https://sossfusion2024.sched.com/speaker/cory_doctorow.1qm5qfgn * Eagle Eye Books (Decatur), Oct 23 https://eagleeyebooks.com/event/2024-10-23/cory-doctorow * TusCon (Tucson), Nov 8-10 https://tusconscificon.com/ * International Cooperative Alliance (New Delhi), Nov 24 https://icanewdelhi2024.coop/welcome/pages/Programme * ISSA-LA Holiday Celebration keynote (Los Angeles), Dec 18 https://issala.org/event/issa-la-december-18-dinner-meeting/ * ?Come distruggere il capitalismo della sorveglianza? (Pisa/Remote), Oct 12 https://www.internetfestival.it/programma/come-distruggere-il-capitalismo-della-sorveglianza/ * OKFN Tech We Want Online Summit (Remote), Oct 18 https://okfn.org/en/events/the-tech-we-want-online-summit/ * SOSS Fusion (Atlanta), Oct 22 https://sossfusion2024.sched.com/speaker/cory_doctorow.1qm5qfgn * Eagle Eye Books (Decatur), Oct 23 https://eagleeyebooks.com/event/2024-10-23/cory-doctorow * TusCon (Tucson), Nov 8-10 https://tusconscificon.com/ * International Cooperative Alliance (New Delhi), Nov 24 https://icanewdelhi2024.coop/welcome/pages/Programme * ISSA-LA Holiday Celebration keynote (Los Angeles), Dec 18 https://issala.org/event/issa-la-december-18-dinner-meeting/ Recent appearances (permalink) * Was There Ever An Old, Good Internet? (David Graeber Institute) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6Jlxx5TboE * Go Fact Yourself https://maximumfun.org/episodes/go-fact-yourself/ep-158-aida-rodriguez-cory-doctorow/ * The great decline of everything online (Lately podcast) https://www.theglobeandmail.com/podcasts/lately/article-cory-doctorow-podcast-interview/ 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 middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2025 Colophon (permalink) Today's top sources: Currently writing: * Enshittification: a nonfiction book about platform decay for Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Today's progress: 840 words (61666 words total). * 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 FEB 2025 Latest podcast: Spill, part one (a Little Brother story) https://craphound.com/littlebrother/2024/10/06/spill-part-one-a-little-brother-story/ This work - excluding any serialized fiction - is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution. How to get Pluralistic: Blog (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): Pluralistic.net Newsletter (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://pluralistic.net/plura-list Mastodon (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic Medium (no ads, paywalled): https://doctorow.medium.com/ Twitter (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://twitter.com/doctorow Tumblr (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/tagged/pluralistic "When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: OpenPGP_0x9026DBBE1FC237AF.asc Type: application/pgp-keys Size: 3650 bytes Desc: OpenPGP public key URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: OpenPGP_signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 203 bytes Desc: OpenPGP digital signature URL: From doctorow at craphound.com Fri Oct 11 13:58:54 2024 From: doctorow at craphound.com (Cory Doctorow) Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2024 10:58:54 -0700 Subject: [Plura-list] Lina Khan's future is the future of the Democratic Party - and America Message-ID: Read today's issue online at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/11/democracys-antitrust-paradox/ Today's links * Lina Khan's future is the future of the Democratic Party - and America: Is the Harris administration committed to the American people, or billionaire donors? * Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. * This day in history: 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019 * Upcoming appearances: Where to find me. * Recent appearances: Where I've been. * 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. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Lina Khan's future is the future of the Democratic Party - and America On the one hand, the anti-monopoly movement has a future no matter who wins the 2024 election - that's true even if Kamala Harris wins but heeds the calls from billionaire donors to fire Lina Khan and her fellow trustbusters. In part, that's because US antitrust laws have broad "private rights of action" that allow individuals and companies to sue one another for monopolistic conduct, even if top government officials are turning a blind eye. It's true that from the Reagan era to the Biden era, these private suits were few and far between, and the cases that were brought often died in a federal courtroom. But the past four years has seen a resurgence of antitrust rage that runs from left to right, and from individuals to the C-suites of big companies, driving a wave of private cases that are prevailing in the courts, upending the pro-monopoly precedents that billionaires procured by offering free "continuing education" antitrust training to *40%* of the Federal judiciary: https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/13/post-bork-era/#manne-down It's amazing to see the DoJ racking up huge wins against Google's monopolistic conduct, sure, but first blood went to Epic, who won a historic victory over Google in federal court six months before the DoJ's win, which led to the court ordering Google to open up its app store: https://www.theverge.com/policy/2024/10/7/24243316/epic-google-permanent-injunction-ruling-third-party-stores Google's 30% App Tax is a giant drag on all kinds of sectors, as is its veto over which software Android users get to see, so Epic's win is going to dramatically alter the situation for all kinds of activities, from beleaguered indie game devs: https://antiidlereborn.com/news/ To the entire news sector: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/06/save-news-we-must-open-app-stores Private antitrust cases have attracted some very surprising plaintiffs, like Michael Jordan, whose long police of apoliticism crumbled once he bought a NASCAR team and lived through the monopoly abuses of sports leagues as an owner, not a player: https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/michael-jordan-anti-monopolist A much weirder and more unlikely antitrust plaintiff than Michael Jordan is *Google*, the perennial antitrust *defendant*. Google has brought a complaint against Microsoft in the EU, based on Microsoft's extremely ugly monopolistic cloud business: https://www.reuters.com/technology/google-files-complaint-eu-over-microsoft-cloud-practices-2024-09-25/ Google's choice of venue here highlights another reason to think that the antitrust surge will continue irrespective of US politics: antitrust is *global*. Antitrust fervor has seized governments from the UK to the EU to South Korea to Japan. All of those countries have extremely similar antitrust laws, because they all had their statute books overhauled by US technocrats as part of the Marshall Plan, so they have the same statutory tools as the American trustbusters who dismantled Standard Oil and AT&T, and who are making ready to shatter Google into several competing businesses: https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/8/24265832/google-search-antitrust-remedies-framework-android-chrome-play Antitrust fever has spread to Canada, Australia, and even China, where the Cyberspace Directive bans Chinese tech giants from breaking interoperability to freeze out Chinese startups. Anything that can't go on forever eventually stops, and the cost of 40 years of pro-monopoly can't be ignored. Monopolies make the whole world more brittle, even as the cost of that brittleness mounts. It's hard to pretend monopolies are fine when a single hurricane can wipe out the entire country's supply of IV fluid - *again*: https://prospect.org/health/2024-10-11-cant-believe-im-writing-about-iv-fluid-again/ What's more, the conduct of global monopolists is the same in every country where they have taken hold, which means that trustbusters in the EU can use the UK Digital Markets Unit's report on the mobile app market as a roadmap for their enforcement actions against Apple: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/63f61bc0d3bf7f62e8c34a02/Mobile_Ecosystems_Final_Report_amended_2.pdf And then the South Korean and Japanese trustbusters can translate the court documents from the EU's enforcement action and use them to score victories over Apple in their own courts: https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/10/an-injury-to-one/#is-an-injury-to-all So on the one hand, the trustbusting wave will continue erode the foundations of global monopolies, no matter what happens after this election. But on the other hand, if Harris wins and then fires Biden's top trustbusters to appease her billionaire donors, things are going to get *ugly*. A new, excellent long-form *Bloomberg* article by Josh Eidelson and Max Chafkin gives a sense of the battle raging just below the surface of the Democratic Power, built around a superb interview with Khan herself: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-10-09/lina-khan-on-a-second-ftc-term-ai-price-gouging-data-privacy The article begins with a litany of tech billionaires who've gone an all-out, public assault on Khan's leadership - billionaires who stand to personally lose hundreds of millions of dollars from her agency's principled, vital antitrust work, but who cloak their objection to Khan in rhetoric about defending the American economy. In public, some of these billionaires are icily polite, but many of them degenerate into frothing, toddler-grade name-calling, like IAB's Barry Diller, who called her a "dope" and Musk lickspittle Jason Calacanis, who called her an all-caps COMMUNIST and a LUNATIC. The overall vibe from these wreckers? "How *dare* the FTC do things?!" And you know, they have a point. For decades, the FTC was - in the quoted words of Tim Wu - "a very hardworking agency that did nothing." This was the period when the FTC targeted low-level scammers while turning a blind eye to the monsters that were devouring the US economy. In part, that was because the FTC had been starved of budget, trapping them in a cycle of racking up easy, largely pointless "wins" against penny-ante grifters to justify their existence, but never to the extent that Congress would apportion them the funds to tackle the really serious cases (if this sounds familiar, it's also the what happened during the long period when the IRS chased middle class taxpayers over minor filing errors, while ignoring the billionaires and giant corporations that engaged in 7- and 8-figure tax scams). But the FTC wasn't merely underfunded: it was *timid*. The FTC has extremely broad enforcement and rulemaking powers, which most sat dormant during the neoliberal era: https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge The Biden administration didn't merely increase the FTC's funding: in choosing Khan to helm the organization, they brought onboard a skilled *technician*, who was both well-versed in the extensive but unused powers of the agency *and* determined to use them: https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/18/administrative-competence/#i-know-stuff But Khan's didn't just rely on technical chops and resources to begin the de-olicharchification of the US economy: she built a three-legged stool, whose third leg is *narrative*. Khan's signature is her in-person and remote "listening tours," where workers who've been harmed by corporate power get to tell their stories. *Bloomberg* recounts the story of Deborah Brantley, who was sexually harassed and threatened by her bosses at Kavasutra North Palm Beach. Brantley's bosses touched her inappropriately and "joked" about drugging her and raping her so she "won?t be such a bitch and then maybe people would like you more." When Brantley finally quit and took a job bartending at a different business, Kavasutra sued her over her noncompete clause, alleging an "irreparable injury" sustained by having one of their former employees working at another business, seeking damages and fees. The vast majority of the 30 million American workers who labor under noncompetes are like Brantley, low-waged service workers, especially at fast-food restaurants (so Wendy's franchisees can stop minimum wage cashiers from earning $0.25/hour more flipping burgers at a nearby McDonald's). The donor-class indenturers who defend noncompetes claim that noncompetes are necessary to protect "innovative" businesses from losing their "IP." But of course, the one state where *no* workers are subject to noncompetes is California, which bans them outright - the state that is also home to Silicon Valley, an IP-heave industry that the same billionaires laud for its innovations. After that listening tour, Khan's FTC banned noncompetes nationwide: https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/25/capri-v-tapestry/#aiming-at-dollars-not-men Only to have a federal judge in Texas throw out their ban, a move that will see $300b/year transfered from workers to shareholders, and block the formation of 8,500 new US businesses every year: https://www.npr.org/2024/08/21/g-s1-18376/federal-judge-tosses-ftc-noncompetes-ban Notwithstanding court victories like Epic v Google and DoJ v Google, America's oligarchs have the courts on their side, thanks to decades of court-packing planned by the Federalist Society and executed by Senate Republicans and Reagan, Bush I, Bush II, and Trump. Khan understands this; she told *Bloomberg* that she's a "close student" of the tactics Reagan used to transform American society, admiring his effectiveness while hating his results. Like other transformative presidents, good and bad, Reagan had to fight the judiciary and entrenched institutions (as did FDR and Lincoln). Erasing Reagan's legacy is a long-term project, a battle of inches that will involve mustering broad political support for the cause of a freer, more equal America. Neither Biden nor Khan are responsible for the groundswell of US - and global - movement to euthanize our rentier overlords. This is a moment whose time has come; a fact demonstrated by the tens of thousands of working Americans who filled the FTC's noncompete docket with outraged comments. People understand that corporate looters - not "the economy" or "the forces of history" - are the reason that the businesses where they worked and shopped were destroyed by private equity goons who amassed intergenerational, dynastic fortunes by strip-mining the real economy and leaving behind rubble. Like the billionaires publicly demanding that Harris fire Khan, private equity bosses can't stop making tone-deaf, guillotine-conjuring pronouncements about their own virtue and the righteousness of their businesses. They don't just want to destroy the world - they want to be *praised* for it: * "Private equity?s been a great thing for America" -Stephen Pagliuca, co-chairman of Bain Capital; * "We are taught to judge the success of a society by how it deals with the least able, most vulnerable members of that society. Shouldn?t we judge a society by how they treat the most successful? Do we vilify, tax, expropriate and condemn those who have succeeded, or do we celebrate economic success as the engine that propels our society toward greater collective well-being?" -Marc Rowan, CEO of Apollo * "Achieve life-changing money and power," -Sachin Khajuria, former partner at Apollo Meanwhile, the "buy, strip and flip" model continues to chew its way through America. When PE buys up all the treatment centers for kids with behavioral problems, they hack away at staffing and oversight, turning them into nightmares where kids are routinely abused, raped and murdered: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/they-told-me-it-was-going-be-good-place-allega-tions-n987176 When PE buys up nursing homes, the same thing happens, with elderly residents left to sit in their own excrement and then die: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/12/24/nursing-homes-private-equity-fraud-00132001 Writing in *The Guardian*, Alex Blasdel lays out the case for private equity as a kind of virus that infects economies, parasitically draining them of not just the capacity to provide goods and services, but also of the ability to govern themselves, as politicians and regulators are captured by the unfathomable sums that PE flushes into the political process: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/oct/10/slash-and-burn-is-private-equity-out-of-control Now, the average worker who's just lost their job may not understand "divi recaps" or "2-and-20" or "carried interest tax loopholes," but they *do* understand that something is deeply rotten in the world today. What happens to that understanding is a matter of politics. The Republicans - firmly affiliated with, and beloved of, the wreckers - have chosen an easy path to capitalizing on the rising rage. All they need to do is convince the public that the system is irredeemably corrupt and that the government can't *possibly* fix *anything* (hence Reagan's asinine "joke": "the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help.'" This is a very canny strategy. If you are the party of "governments are intrinsically corrupt and incompetent," then governing corruptly and incompetently *proves your point*. The GOP strategy is to create a nation of enraged nihilists who don't even *imagine* that the government could do something to hold their bosses to account - not for labor abuses, not for pollution, not for wage theft or bribery. The fact that successive neoliberal governments - including Democratic administrations - acted time and again to bear out this hypothesis makes it easy for this kind of nihilism to take hold. Far-right conspiracies about pharma bosses colluding with corrupt FDA officials to poison us with vaccines for profit owe their success to the lived experience of millions of Americans who lost loved ones to a conspiracy between pharma bosses and corrupt officials to poison us with opioids. Unhinged beliefs that "they" caused the hurricanes tearing through Florida and Georgia and that Kamala Harris is capping compensation to people who lost their homes are only credible because of murderous Republican fumble during Katrina; and the larcenous collusion of Democrats to help banks steal Americans' homes during the foreclosure crisis, when Obama took Tim Geithner's advice to "foam the runway" with the mortgages of everyday Americans who'd been cheated by their banks: https://www.salon.com/2014/05/14/this_man_made_millions_suffer_tim_geithners_sorry_legacy_on_housing/ If Harris gives in to billionaire donors and fires Khan and her fellow trustbusters, paving the way for more looting and scamming, the result will be *more nihilism*, which is to say, more electoral victories for the GOP. The "government can't do anything" party already exists. There are no votes to be gained by billing yourself as the "we *also* think governments can't do anything" party. In other words, a world where Khan doesn't run the FTC is a world where antitrust continues to gain ground, but without taking Democrats with it. It's a world where nihilism wins. There's factions of the Democratic Party who understand this. AOC warned party leaders that, "Anyone goes near Lina Khan and there will be an out and out brawl": https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1844034727935988155 And Bernie Sanders called her "the best FTC Chair in modern history": https://twitter.com/SenSanders/status/1843733298960576652 In other words: Lina Khan as a posse. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Hey look at this * The Age of Depopulation https://www.foreignaffairs.com/world/age-depopulation-surviving-world-gone-gray-nicholas-eberstadt (h/t Hacker News) * Wealth distribution in the United States https://www.righto.com/2024/10/wealth-distribution-in-united-states.html (h/t JWZ) * Cards Against Humanity Pays You to Give a Shit https://www.apologize.lol ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? This day in history #20yrsago Entertainment companies bent on wholesale slaughter of Betamax, puppies https://web.archive.org/web/20041010092552/https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/001987.php #15yrsago What?s wrong with Search Engine Optimization http://https://powazek.com/posts/2090 #15yrsago Gag order blocks Guardian from reporting on Parliament https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/oct/12/guardian-gagged-from-reporting-parliament #15yrsago Copyright vs. folk music https://web.archive.org/web/20091016014623/https://freemusicarchive.org/member/stevenarntson/blog/The_Absent_Second_An_Explanation #15yrsago xkcd: volume 0 https://memex.craphound.com/2009/10/12/xkcd-volume-0/ #10yrsago Chinese Supreme Court makes service providers liable for ?human flesh search engine? https://archive.shine.cn/national/Rules-to-protect-personal-rights-online/shdaily.shtml #10yrsago NSA agents may have infiltrated the global communications industry https://web.archive.org/web/20141011080630/https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/10/10/core-secrets/ #10yrsago Librarians on the vanguard of the anti-surveillance movement https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2014/10/03/librarians-wont-stay-quiet-about-government-surveillance/ #5yrsago AT&T hikes business customers? bills by up to 7%, charging them to recoup its own property taxes https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/10/att-raises-prices-7-by-making-its-customers-pay-atts-property-taxes/ #5yrsago Google continues to funnel vast sums to notorious climate deniers https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/11/google-contributions-climate-change-deniers #5yrsago Mayor accused of failing to fullfil road maintenance promises is dragged through the streets by angry voters https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-49984987 #5yrsago CBC sues Canada?s Conservative Party for using short debate clips in campaign materials https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2019/10/cbc-sues-the-conservative-party-of-canada-for-copyright-infringement-citing-campaign-video-posting-debate-excerpts-on-twitter/ Upcoming appearances (permalink) * ?Come distruggere il capitalismo della sorveglianza? (Pisa/Remote), Oct 12 https://www.internetfestival.it/programma/come-distruggere-il-capitalismo-della-sorveglianza/ * OKFN Tech We Want Online Summit (Remote), Oct 18 https://okfn.org/en/events/the-tech-we-want-online-summit/ * SOSS Fusion (Atlanta), Oct 22 https://sossfusion2024.sched.com/speaker/cory_doctorow.1qm5qfgn * Eagle Eye Books (Decatur), Oct 23 https://eagleeyebooks.com/event/2024-10-23/cory-doctorow * TusCon (Tucson), Nov 8-10 https://tusconscificon.com/ * International Cooperative Alliance (New Delhi), Nov 24 https://icanewdelhi2024.coop/welcome/pages/Programme * ISSA-LA Holiday Celebration keynote (Los Angeles), Dec 18 https://issala.org/event/issa-la-december-18-dinner-meeting/ * ?Come distruggere il capitalismo della sorveglianza? (Pisa/Remote), Oct 12 https://www.internetfestival.it/programma/come-distruggere-il-capitalismo-della-sorveglianza/ * OKFN Tech We Want Online Summit (Remote), Oct 18 https://okfn.org/en/events/the-tech-we-want-online-summit/ * SOSS Fusion (Atlanta), Oct 22 https://sossfusion2024.sched.com/speaker/cory_doctorow.1qm5qfgn * Eagle Eye Books (Decatur), Oct 23 https://eagleeyebooks.com/event/2024-10-23/cory-doctorow * TusCon (Tucson), Nov 8-10 https://tusconscificon.com/ * International Cooperative Alliance (New Delhi), Nov 24 https://icanewdelhi2024.coop/welcome/pages/Programme * ISSA-LA Holiday Celebration keynote (Los Angeles), Dec 18 https://issala.org/event/issa-la-december-18-dinner-meeting/ Recent appearances (permalink) * Speciale intervista a Cory Doctorow (Digitalia) https://digitalia.fm/744/ * Was There Ever An Old, Good Internet? (David Graeber Institute) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6Jlxx5TboE * Go Fact Yourself https://maximumfun.org/episodes/go-fact-yourself/ep-158-aida-rodriguez-cory-doctorow/ 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 middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2025 Colophon (permalink) Today's top sources: Naked Capitalism (https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/). Currently writing: * Enshittification: a nonfiction book about platform decay for Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Today's progress: 758 words (62424 words total). * 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 FEB 2025 Latest podcast: Spill, part one (a Little Brother story) https://craphound.com/littlebrother/2024/10/06/spill-part-one-a-little-brother-story/ This work - excluding any serialized fiction - is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution. How to get Pluralistic: Blog (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): Pluralistic.net Newsletter (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://pluralistic.net/plura-list Mastodon (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic Medium (no ads, paywalled): https://doctorow.medium.com/ Twitter (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://twitter.com/doctorow Tumblr (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/tagged/pluralistic "When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: OpenPGP_0x9026DBBE1FC237AF.asc Type: application/pgp-keys Size: 3650 bytes Desc: OpenPGP public key URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: OpenPGP_signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 203 bytes Desc: OpenPGP digital signature URL: From doctorow at craphound.com Sat Oct 12 12:57:26 2024 From: doctorow at craphound.com (Cory Doctorow) Date: Sat, 12 Oct 2024 09:57:26 -0700 Subject: [Plura-list] Quinque gazump linkdump Message-ID: <90e66391-fdd0-4f61-8ff5-6cda71b5b83b@craphound.com> Read today's issue online at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/12/pasticcio/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ On October 23 at 7PM, I'll be in Decatur, presenting my novel *The Bezzle* at Eagle Eye Books: https://eagleeyebooks.com/event/2024-10-23/cory-doctorow ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ Today's links * Quinque gazump linkdump: A sprinkling of inklings for the weekend. * This day in history: 2004, 2009, 2023 * Upcoming appearances: Where to find me. * Recent appearances: Where I've been. * 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. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Quinque gazump linkdump It's Saturday and any fule kno that this is the day for a linkdump, in which the links that couldn't be squeezed into the week's newsletter editions get their own showcase. Here's the previous 23 linkdumps: https://pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/ Start your weekend with some child's play! *Ada & Zangemann* is a picture book by Matthias Kirschner and Sandra Brandst?tter of Free Software Foundation Europe, telling the story of a greedy inventor who ensnares a town with his proprietary, remote-brickable gadgets, and Ada, his nemesis, a young girl who reverse engineers them and lets their users seize the means of computation: https://fsfe.org/activities/ada-zangemann/index.en.html *Ada & Zangemann* is open access - you can share it, adapt it, and sell it as you see fit - and has been translated into several languages. Now, there's a cartoon version, an animated adaptation that is likewise open access, with digital assets for your remixing pleasure: https://fsfe.org/activities/ada-zangemann//movie Figuring out how to talk to kids about important subjects is a clarifying exercise. Back in the glory days of SNL, Eddie Murphy lampooned Fred "Mr" Rogers style of talking to kids, and it was indeed very funny: https://snl.fandom.com/wiki/Mr._Robinson But Mr Rogers' rhetorical style wasn't as simple as "talk slowly and use small words" - the "Fredish" dialect that Mr Rogers created was thoughtful, empathic, inclusive, and very effective: https://memex.craphound.com/2019/07/09/the-nine-rules-of-freddish-the-positive-inclusive-empathic-language-of-mr-rogers/ Lots of writers have used the sing-songy fairytale style of children's stories to make serious political points (see, e.g. *Animal Farm*). My own attempt at this was my 2011 short story "The Brave Little Toaster," for *MIT Tech Review*'s annual sf series. If the title sounds familiar, that's because I nicked it from Tom Disch's tale of the same name, as part of my series of stolen title stories: https://locusmag.com/2012/05/cory-doctorow-a-prose-by-any-other-name/ My *Toaster* story is a tale of IoT gone wild, in which the nightmare of a world of "smart" devices that exert control over their owners is shown to be a nightmare. A work colleague sent me this adaptation of the story as part of an English textbook, with lots of worksheet-style exercises. I'd never seen this before, and it's very fun: http://ourenglishclass.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2024/09/bravetoaster.pdf If you like my "Brave Little Toaster," you'll likely enjoy my novella "Unauthorized Bread," which appears in my 2019 collection *Radicalized* and is currently being adapted as a middle-grades graphic novel by Blue Delliquanti for Firstsecond: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/unauthorized-bread-a-near-future-tale-of-refugees-and-sinister-iot-appliances/ Childlike parables have their place, but just because something fits in a "just so" story, that doesn't make it true. Cryptocurrency weirdos desperately need to learn this lesson. The foundation of cryptocurrency is a fairytale about the origin of money, a mythological marketplace in which freely trading individuals who struggled to find a "confluence of needs." If you wanted to trade one third of your cow for two and a half of my chickens, how could we complete the transaction? In the "money story" fairy tale, we spontaneously decided that we would use gold, for a bunch of nonsensical reasons that don't bear even cursory scrutiny. And so coin money sprang into existence, and we all merrily traded our gold with one another until a wicked government came and stole our gold with (cue scary voice) *taaaaaaxes*. There is zero evidence for this. It's literally a fairy tale. There is a rich history of where money came from, and the answer, in short is, governments created it *through* taxes, and money doesn't exist without taxation: https://locusmag.com/2022/09/cory-doctorow-moneylike/ The money story is a lie, and it's a consequential one. The belief that money arises spontaneously out of the needs of freely trading people who voluntarily accept an arbitrary token as a store of value, unit of account, and unit of exchange (coupled with a childish, reactionary aversion to taxation) inspired cryptocurrency, and with it, the scams that allowed unscrupulous huxters to steal billions from everyday people who trusted Matt Damon, Spike Lee and Larry David when they told them that cryptocurrency was a sure path to financial security: https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/15/your-new-first-name/#that-dagger-tho It turns out that private money, far from being a tool of liberation, is rather just a dismal tool for ripping off the unsuspecting, and that goes double for crypto, where complexity can be weaponized by swindlers: https://pluralistic.net/2022/03/13/the-byzantine-premium/ We don't hear nearly as much about crypto these days - many of the pump-and-dump set have moved on to pitching AI stock - but there's still billions tied up in the scam, and new shitcoins are still being minted at speed. The FBI actually created a sting operation to expose the dirtiness of the crypto "ecosystem": https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/10/24267098/fbi-coin-crypto-token-nexgenai-sec-doj-fraud-investigation They found that the exchanges, "market makers" and other seemingly rock-ribbed institutions where suckers are enticed to buy, sell, track and price cryptos are classic Big Store cons: http://www.amyreading.com/the-9-stages-of-the-big-con.html When you, the unsuspecting retail investor, enter one of these mirror-palaces, you are the only audience member in a play that everyone else is in on. Those vigorous trades that see the shitcoin you're being hustled with skyrocketing in value? They're "wash trades," where insiders buy and sell the same asset to one another, without real money ever changing hands, just to create the appearance of a rapidly appreciating asset that you had best get in on before you are priced out of the market. This scam is as old as con games themselves and, as with other scams- S&Ls, Enron, subprime - the con artists have parlayed their winnings into social respectability and are now flushing them into the political system, to punish lawmakers who threaten their ability to rip off you and your neighbors. A massive, terrifying investigative story in *The New Yorker* shows how crypto billionaires stole the Democratic nomination from Katie Porter, one of the most effective anti-scam lawmakers in recent history: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/10/14/silicon-valley-the-new-lobbying-monster Big Tech - like every corrupt cartel in history - is desperate to conjure a kleptocracy into existence, whose officials they can corrupt in order to keep the machine going until they've maximized their gains and achieved escape velocity from consequences. No surprise, then, that tech companies have adopted the same spin tactics that sowed doubt about the tobacco-cancer link, in order to keep the US from updating its anemic privacy laws. The last time Congress gave us a new consumer privacy law was 1988, when they banned video store clerks from disclosing our VHS rental history to newspapers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Privacy_Protection_Act By preventing confining privacy law to the VCR era, Big Tech has been able to plunder our data with impunity - aided by cops and spies who love the fact that there's a source of cheap, off-the-books, warrantless surveillance data that would be illegal for them to collect. Writing for *Tech Policy Press*, the Norcal ACLU's Jake Snow connects the tobacco industry fight over "pre-emption" to the modern fight over privacy laws: https://www.techpolicy.press/big-tech-is-trying-to-burn-privacy-to-the-ground-and-theyre-using-big-tobaccos-strategy-to-do-it/ In the 1990s, Big Tobacco went to war against state anti-smoking laws, arguing that the federal government had the right - nay, the *duty* - to create a "harmonized" national system of smoking laws that would preempt state laws. Strangely, politicians who *love* "states' rights" when it comes to banning abortion, tax-base erosion and "right to work" anti-union laws suddenly discovered federal religion when their campaign donors from the Cancer-Industrial Complex decided that states shouldn't use those rights to limit smoking. This is *exactly* the tack that Big Tech has taken on privacy, arguing that any update to federal privacy law should abolish muscular state-level laws, like Illinois's best-in-class biometric privacy rules, or California's CPPA. Like Big Tobacco, Big Tech has "funded front groups, hired an armada of lobbyists, donated millions to campaigns, and opened a firehose of lobbying money," with the goal of replacing "real privacy laws with fake industry alternatives as ineffective as non-smoking sections." Whether it's understanding the origin of money or the Big Tobacco playbook, knowing history can protect you from all kinds of predatory behavior. But history isn't merely a sword and shield, it's also just a *delight*. Internet pioneer Ethan Zuckerman is road-tripping around America, and in August, he got to Columbus, IN, home to some of the country's most beautiful and important architectural treasures: https://ethanzuckerman.com/2024/08/29/road-trip-the-company-town-and-the-corn-fields/ The buildings - clustered in within a few, walkable blocks - are the legacy of the diesel engine manufacturing titan Cummins, whose postwar president J Irwin Miller used the company's wartime profits to commission a string of gorgeous structures from starchitects like the Saarinens, IM Pei, Kevin Roche, Richard Meier, Harry Weese, C?sar Pelli, Gunnar Birkerts, and Skidmore. I had no idea about any of this, and now I want to visit Columbus! I'm planning a book tour right now (for my next novel, *Picks and Shovels*, which is out in February) and there's a *little* wiggle-room in the midwestern part of the tour. There's a possibility that I'll end up in the vicinity, and if that happens, I'm definitely gonna find time for a little detour! ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? This day in history #20yrago Monsanto stole patented wheat from Indian farmers https://www.gmwatch.org/en/news/archive/2004/7403-monsantos-indian-wheat-patent-withdrawn-in-europe-4102004 #15yrsago Meet the 42 lucky people who got to see the secret copyright treaty https://www.keionline.org/39045 #15yrsago Airlines that charge fees lost more money than airlines that didn?t https://joe.biztravelife.com/09/042309.html #15yrsago EFF comes to the rescue of Texas Instruments calculator hackers https://www.eff.org/press/archives/2009/10/13 #10yrsago How state anti-choice laws let judges humiliate vulnerable teens https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/teen-abortion-judicial-bypass-parental-notification/ #10yrsago One weird legal trick that makes patent trolls cry https://memex.craphound.com/2014/10/13/one-weird-legal-trick-that-makes-patent-trolls-cry/ #10yrsago Hong Kong?s pro-democracy websites riddled with malware https://www.volexity.com/blog/2014/10/09/democracy-in-hong-kong-under-attack/ #1yrago Microsoft put their tax-evasion in writing and now they owe $29 billion https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/13/pour-encoragez-les-autres/#micros-tilde-one ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Upcoming appearances * ?Come distruggere il capitalismo della sorveglianza? (Pisa/Remote), Oct 12 https://www.internetfestival.it/programma/come-distruggere-il-capitalismo-della-sorveglianza/ * OKFN Tech We Want Online Summit (Remote), Oct 18 https://okfn.org/en/events/the-tech-we-want-online-summit/ * SOSS Fusion (Atlanta), Oct 22 https://sossfusion2024.sched.com/speaker/cory_doctorow.1qm5qfgn * Eagle Eye Books (Decatur), Oct 23 https://eagleeyebooks.com/event/2024-10-23/cory-doctorow * TusCon (Tucson), Nov 8-10 https://tusconscificon.com/ * International Cooperative Alliance (New Delhi), Nov 24 https://icanewdelhi2024.coop/welcome/pages/Programme * ISSA-LA Holiday Celebration keynote (Los Angeles), Dec 18 https://issala.org/event/issa-la-december-18-dinner-meeting/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Recent appearances * Speciale intervista a Cory Doctorow (Digitalia) https://digitalia.fm/744/ * Was There Ever An Old, Good Internet? (David Graeber Institute) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6Jlxx5TboE * Go Fact Yourself https://maximumfun.org/episodes/go-fact-yourself/ep-158-aida-rodriguez-cory-doctorow/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Latest books * 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 * Picks and Shovels: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books, February 2025 * Unauthorized Bread: a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2025 ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Colophon Today's top sources: Super Punch (https://www.superpunch.net/), John Naughton (https://memex.naughtons.org/), Hayley Tsukayama (https://www.hayleytsukayama.com/), Dave Maass (https://twitter.com/maassive). Currently writing: * Enshittification: a nonfiction book about platform decay for Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Friday's progress: 768 words (63193 words total). * 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 FEB 2025 Latest podcast: Spill, part one (a Little Brother story) https://craphound.com/littlebrother/2024/10/06/spill-part-one-a-little-brother-story/ This work - excluding any serialized fiction - is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? How to get Pluralistic: Blog (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): Pluralistic.net Newsletter (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://pluralistic.net/plura-list Mastodon (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic Medium (no ads, paywalled): https://doctorow.medium.com/ Twitter (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://twitter.com/doctorow Tumblr (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/tagged/pluralistic "*When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla*" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla From doctorow at craphound.com Mon Oct 14 12:13:59 2024 From: doctorow at craphound.com (Cory Doctorow) Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2024 09:13:59 -0700 Subject: [Plura-list] Dirty words are politically potent Message-ID: <5f3c3132-5f26-4ddd-9dec-fc16ad597cb2@craphound.com> Read today's issue online at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/14/pearl-clutching/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ On October 23 at 7PM, I'll be in Decatur, presenting my novel *The Bezzle* at Eagle Eye Books: https://eagleeyebooks.com/event/2024-10-23/cory-doctorow ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ Today's links * Dirty words are politically potent: Why "enshittification" took hold. * Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. * This day in history: 2009, 2014, 2019, 2023. * Upcoming appearances: Where to find me. * Recent appearances: Where I've been. * 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. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ?? Dirty words are politically potent Making up words is a perfectly cromulent passtime, and while most of the words we coin disappear as soon as they fall from our lips, every now and again, you find a word that fits so nice and kentucky in the public discourse that it acquires a life of its own: http://meaningofliff.free.fr/definition.php3?word=Kentucky 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: https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/14/pearl-clutching/#this-toilet-has-no-central-nervous-system I've been trying to increase the salience of digital human rights in the public imagination for a quarter of a century, starting with the campaign to get people to appreciate that the internet matters, and that tech policy isn't just the delusion that the governance of spaces where sad nerds argue about Star Trek is somehow relevant to human thriving: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/10/04/small-change-malcolm-gladwell Now, eventually people figured out that a) the internet mattered and, b) it was going dreadfully wrong. So my job changed again, from "how the internet is governed matters" to "you can't fix the internet with wishful thinking," for example, when people said we could solve its problems by banning general purpose computers: https://memex.craphound.com/2012/01/10/lockdown-the-coming-war-on-general-purpose-computing/ Or by banning working cryptography: https://memex.craphound.com/2018/09/04/oh-for-fucks-sake-not-this-fucking-bullshit-again-cryptography-edition/ Or by redesigning web browsers to treat their owners as threats: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/09/open-letter-w3c-director-ceo-team-and-membership Or by using bots to filter every public utterance to ensure that they don't infringe copyright: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/09/today-europe-lost-internet-now-we-fight-back Or by forcing platforms to surveil and police their users' speech (aka "getting rid of Section 230"): https://www.techdirt.com/2020/06/23/hello-youve-been-referred-here-because-youre-wrong-about-section-230-communications-decency-act/ Along the way, many of us have coined words in a bid to encapsulate the abstract, technical ideas at the core of these arguments. This isn't a vanity project! Creating a common vocabulary is a necessary precondition for having the substantive, vital debates we'll need to tackle the real, thorny issues raised by digital systems. So there's "free software," "open source," "filternet," "chat control," "back doors," and my own contributions, like "adversarial interoperability": https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interoperability Or "Competitive Compatibility" ("comcom"), a less-intimidatingly technical term for the same thing: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/12/competitive-compatibility-year-review These have all found their own niches, but nearly all of them are just that: *niche*. Some don't even rise to "niche": they're *shibboleths*, insider terms that confuse and intimidate normies and distract from the real fights with semantic ones, like whether it's "FOSS" or "FLOSS" or something else entirely: https://opensource.stackexchange.com/questions/262/what-is-the-difference-between-foss-and-floss But every now and again, you get a word that just *kills*. That brings me to "enshittification," a word I coined in 2022: https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/28/enshittification/#relentless-payola "Enshittification" took root in my hindbrain, rolling around and around, agglomerating lots of different thoughts and critiques I'd been making for years, crystallizing them into a coherent thesis: https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys This kind of spontaneous crystallization is the dividend of doing lots of work in public, trying to take every half-formed thought and pin it down in public writing, something I've been doing for decades: https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/09/the-memex-method/ After those first couple articles, "enshittification" raced around the internet. There's two reasons for this: first, "enshittification" is a naughty word that's fun to say. Journalists love getting to put "shit" in their copy: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/15/crosswords/linguistics-word-of-the-year.html Radio journalists love to tweak the FCC with cheekily bleeped syllables in slightly dirty compound words: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/projects/enshitification And nothing enlivens an academic's day like getting to use a word like "enshittification" in a journal article (doubtless this also amuses the editors, peer-reviewers, copyeditors, typesetters, etc): https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=enshittification&btnG=&oq=ensh That was where I started, too! The first time I used "enshittification" was in a throwaway bad-tempered rant about the decay of Tripadvisor into utter uselessness, which drew a small chorus of appreciative chuckles about the word: https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1550457808222552065 The word rattled around my mind for five months before attaching itself to my detailed theory of platform decay. But it was that detailed critique, *coupled* with a minor license to swear, that gave "enshittification" a life of its own. How do I know that the theory was as important as the swearing? Because the small wave of amusement that followed my first use of "enshittification" petered out in less than a day. It was only when I added the theory that the word took hold. Likewise: how do I know that the theory *needed* to be blended with swearing to break out of the esoteric realm of tech policy debates (which the public had roundly ignored for more than two decades)? Well, because *I spent two decades* writing about this stuff without making anything like the dents that appeared once I added an Anglo-Saxon monosyllable to that critique. Adding "enshittification" to the critique got me more column inches, a longer hearing, a more vibrant debate, than *anything* else I'd tried. First, *Wired* availed itself of the Creative Commons license on my second long-form article on the subject and reprinted it as a 4,200-word feature. I've been writing for Wired for more than *thirty years* and this is by *far* the longest thing I've published with them - a big, roomy, discursive piece that was run *verbatim*, with every one of my cherished darlings unmurdered. That gave the word - and the whole critique, with all its spiky corners - a global airing, leading to more pickup and discussion. Eventually, the American Dialect Society named it their "Word of the Year" (and their "Tech Word of the Year"): https://americandialect.org/2023-word-of-the-year-is-enshittification/ "Enshittification" turns out to be catnip for language nerds: https://becauselanguage.com/90-enpoopification/#transcript-60 I've been dragged into (good natured) fights over the German, Spanish, French and Italian translations for the term. When I taped an NPR show before a live audience with ASL interpretation, I got to watch a Deaf fan politely inform the interpreter that she didn't need to finger-spell "enshittification," because it had already been given an ASL sign by the US Deaf community: https://maximumfun.org/episodes/go-fact-yourself/ep-158-aida-rodriguez-cory-doctorow/ I gave a speech about enshittification in Berlin and published the transcript: https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/30/go-nuts-meine-kerle/#ich-bin-ein-bratapfel Which prompted the rock-ribbed *Financial Times* to get in touch with me and publish the speech - again, nearly verbatim - as a whopping 6,400 word feature in their weekend magazine: https://www.ft.com/content/6fb1602d-a08b-4a8c-bac0-047b7d64aba5 Though they could have had it for free (just as *Wired* had), they insisted on paying me (very well, as it happens!), as did *De Zeit*: https://www.zeit.de/digital/internet/2024-03/plattformen-facebook-google-internet-cory-doctorow This was the *start* of the rise of enshittification. The word is spreading farther than ever, in ways that I have nothing to do with, along with the critique I hung on it. In other words, the bit of string that tech policy wonks have been pushing on for a quarter of a century is actually starting to move, and it's actually accelerating. Despite this (or more likely because of it), there's a growing chorus of "concerned" people who say they like the critique but fret that it is being held back because you can't use it "at church or when talking to K-12 students" (my favorite variant: "I couldn't say this at a NATO conference"). I leave it up to you whether you use the word with your K-12 students, NATO generals, or fellow parishoners (though I assure you that all three groups are conversant with the dirty little word at the root of my coinage). If you don't want to use "enshittification," you can coin your own word - or just use one of the dozens of words that failed to gain public attention over the past 25 years (might I suggest "platform decay"). What's so funny about all this pearl-clutching is that it comes from people who universally profess to have the intestinal fortitude to hear the word "enshittification" without experiencing psychological trauma, but worry that *other* people might not be so strong-minded. They continue to say this even as the most conservative officials in the most staid of exalted forums use the word without a hint of embarrassment, much less apology: https://www.independent.ie/business/technology/chairman-of-irish-social-media-regulator-says-europe-should-not-be-seduced-by-mario-draghis-claims/a526530600.html I mean, I'm giving a speech on enshittification next month at a conference where I'm opening for the Secretary General of the United Nations: https://icanewdelhi2024.coop/welcome/pages/Programme After spending half my life trying to get stuff like this into the discourse, I've developed some hard-won, informed views on how ideas succeed: First: the minor obscenity is a feature, not a bug. The marriage of something long and serious to something short and funny is a happy one that makes both the word and the ideas better off than they'd be on their own. As Lenny Bruce wrote in his canonical work in the subject, the aptly named *How to Talk Dirty and Influence People*: > I want to help you if you have a dirty-word problem. There are none, and I'll spell it out logically to you. > Here is a toilet. Specifically-that's all we're concerned with, specifics-if I can tell you a dirty toilet joke, we must have a dirty toilet. That's what we're all talking about, a toilet. If we take this toilet and boil it and it's clean, I can never tell you specifically a dirty toilet joke about this toilet. I can tell you a dirty toilet joke in the Milner Hotel, or something like that, but this toilet is a clean toilet now. Obscenity is a human manifestation. This toilet has no central nervous system, no level of consciousness. It is not aware; it is a dumb toilet; it cannot be obscene; it's impossible. If it could be obscene, it could be cranky, it could be a Communist toilet, a traitorous toilet. It can do none of these things. This is a dirty toilet here. > Nobody can offend you by telling a dirty toilet story. They can offend you because it's trite; you've heard it many, many times. https://www.dacapopress.com/titles/lenny-bruce/how-to-talk-dirty-and-influence-people/9780306825309/ Second: the fact that a neologism is sometimes decoupled from its theoretical underpinnings and is used colloquially is a *feature*, not a bug. Many people apply the term "enshittification" very loosely indeed, to mean "something that is bad," without bothering to learn - or apply - the theoretical framework. *This is good*. This is what it means for a term to enter the lexicon: it takes on a life of its own. If 10,000,000 people use "enshittification" loosely and inspire 10% of their number to look up the longer, more theoretical work I've done on it, that is *one million normies* who have been sucked into a discourse that used to live exclusively in the world of the most wonkish and obscure practitioners. The only way to maintain a precise, theoretically grounded use of a term is to confine its usage to a small group of largely irrelevant insiders. Policing the use of "enshittification" is worse than a self-limiting move - it would be a self-inflicted wound. As I said in that Berlin speech: > Enshittification names the problem and proposes a solution. It's not just a way to say 'things are getting worse' (though of course, it's fine with me if you want to use it that way. It's an English word. We don't have *der Rat f?r englische Rechtschreibung*. English is a free for all. Go nuts, *meine Kerle*). Finally: "coinage" is both more - and less - than thinking of the word. After the American Dialect Society gave honors to "enshittification," a few people slid into my mentions with citations to "enshittification" that preceded my usage. I find this completely unsurprising, because English is such a slippery and playful tongue, because English speakers love to swear, and because infixing is such a fun way to swear (e.g. "unfuckingbelievable"). But of course, *I* hadn't encountered any of those other usages before I came up with the word independently, nor had any of those other usages spread appreciably beyond the speaker (it appears that each of the handful of predecessors to my usage represents an act of independent coinage). If "coinage" was just a matter of thinking up the word, you could write a small python script that infixed the word "shit" into every syllable of every word in the OED, publish the resulting text file, and declare priority over all subsequent inventive swearers. On the one hand, coinage takes place when the coiner a) independently invents a word; and b) creates the context for that word that causes it to escape from the coiner's immediate milieu and into the wider world. But on the other hand - and far more importantly - the fact that a successful coinage *requires* popular uptake by people unknown to the coiner means that the coiner only ever plays a small role in the coinage. Yes, there would be no popularization without the coinage - but *there would also be no coinage without the popularization.* Words belong to groups of speakers, not individuals. Language is a cultural phenomenon, not an individual one. Which is rather the point, isn't it? After a quarter of a century of being part of a community that fought tirelessly to get a serious and widespread consideration of tech policy underway, we're closer than ever, thanks, in part, to "enshittification." If someone else independently used that word before me, if some people use the word loosely, if the word makes some people uncomfortable, that's fine, *provided* that the word is doing what I want it to do, what I've devoted my life to doing. The point of coining words isn't the pilkunnussija's obsession with precise usage, nor the petty glory of being known as a coiner, nor ensuring that NATO generals' virgin ears are protected from the word "shit" - a word that, incidentally, is also the root of "science": https://www.arrantpedantry.com/2019/01/24/science-and-shit/ Isn't language fun? ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ?? Hey look at this * Risks vs. Harms: Youth & Social Media https://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2024/10/09/risks-vs-harms-youth-social-media.html * Privacy Policies of Sex Worker Directories https://sexworkersear.ch/2024/09/11/privacy-policies/ * "Small Yard, High Fence": These four words conceal a mess https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/small-yard-high-fence-these-four ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ?? This day in history #15yrsago Finland makes broadband a right https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/finland-makes-1mb-broadband-access-a-legal-right/ #10yrsago Dead Set: Richard Kadrey?s young adult horror novel https://memex.craphound.com/2014/10/14/dead-set-richard-kadreys-young-adult-horror-novel/ #10yrsago Gamergate as a hate-group https://memex.craphound.com/2014/10/14/gamergate-as-a-hate-group/ #10yrsago Lamar ?SOPA? Smith dispatches GOP commissars to National Science Foundation https://gizmodo.com/the-gop-intensifies-its-attacks-on-the-national-science-1645733575 #10yrsago Paolo Bacigalupi?s ?The Doubt Factory? https://memex.craphound.com/2014/10/14/paolo-bacigalupis-the-doubt-factory/ #5yrsago What it would cost to build Trump?s snake-and-alligator border moat https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2019/10/snake-and-alligator-border-moat-budget-analysis/160350/ #5yrsago German bank robber staged a 5-day fillibuster with his legally guaranteed right to a post-sentencing ?final word? https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/09/europe/bank-robbery-five-day-speech-intl-scli-grm/index.html #5yrsago Apple told TV Plus showrunners to avoid plots that might upset Chinese officials https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/alexkantrowitz/apple-china-tv-protesters-hong-kong-tim-cook #5yrsago China?s new cybersecurity rules ban foreign companies from using VPNs to phone home https://memex.craphound.com/2019/10/14/chinas-new-cybersecurity-rules-ban-foreign-companies-from-using-vpns-to-phone-home/ #5yrsag Orban humiliated: Hungary?s crypto-fascist Fidesz party suffers string of municipal election defeats https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/13/opposition-parties-candidate-wins-budapest-mayoral-race #5yrsago Proof-of-concept supply-chain poisoning: tiny, undetectable hardware alterations could compromise corporate IT https://memex.craphound.com/2019/10/14/proof-of-concept-supply-chain-poisoning-tiny-undetectable-hardware-alterations-could-compromise-corporate-it/ #1yrago Leaving Twitter had no effect on NPR's traffic https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/14/freedom-of-reach/#ex Upcoming appearances (permalink) * OKFN Tech We Want Online Summit (Remote), Oct 18 https://okfn.org/en/events/the-tech-we-want-online-summit/ * SOSS Fusion (Atlanta), Oct 22 https://sossfusion2024.sched.com/speaker/cory_doctorow.1qm5qfgn * Eagle Eye Books (Decatur), Oct 23 https://eagleeyebooks.com/event/2024-10-23/cory-doctorow * TusCon (Tucson), Nov 8-10 https://tusconscificon.com/ * International Cooperative Alliance (New Delhi), Nov 24 https://icanewdelhi2024.coop/welcome/pages/Programme * ISSA-LA Holiday Celebration keynote (Los Angeles), Dec 18 https://issala.org/event/issa-la-december-18-dinner-meeting/ * OKFN Tech We Want Online Summit (Remote), Oct 18 https://okfn.org/en/events/the-tech-we-want-online-summit/ * SOSS Fusion (Atlanta), Oct 22 https://sossfusion2024.sched.com/speaker/cory_doctorow.1qm5qfgn * Eagle Eye Books (Decatur), Oct 23 https://eagleeyebooks.com/event/2024-10-23/cory-doctorow * TusCon (Tucson), Nov 8-10 https://tusconscificon.com/ * International Cooperative Alliance (New Delhi), Nov 24 https://icanewdelhi2024.coop/welcome/pages/Programme * ISSA-LA Holiday Celebration keynote (Los Angeles), Dec 18 https://issala.org/event/issa-la-december-18-dinner-meeting/ Recent appearances (permalink) * Speciale intervista a Cory Doctorow (Digitalia) https://digitalia.fm/744/ * Was There Ever An Old, Good Internet? (David Graeber Institute) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6Jlxx5TboE * Go Fact Yourself https://maximumfun.org/episodes/go-fact-yourself/ep-158-aida-rodriguez-cory-doctorow/ 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 middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2025 Colophon (permalink) Today's top sources: Currently writing: * Enshittification: a nonfiction book about platform decay for Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Friday's progress: 768 words (63193 words total). * 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 FEB 2025 Latest podcast: Spill, part one (a Little Brother story) https://craphound.com/littlebrother/2024/10/06/spill-part-one-a-little-brother-story/ This work - excluding any serialized fiction - is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution. How to get Pluralistic: Blog (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): Pluralistic.net Newsletter (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://pluralistic.net/plura-list Mastodon (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic Medium (no ads, paywalled): https://doctorow.medium.com/ Twitter (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://twitter.com/doctorow Tumblr (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/tagged/pluralistic "When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: OpenPGP_0x9026DBBE1FC237AF.asc Type: application/pgp-keys Size: 3650 bytes Desc: OpenPGP public key URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: OpenPGP_signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 203 bytes Desc: OpenPGP digital signature URL: From doctorow at craphound.com Tue Oct 15 16:17:39 2024 From: doctorow at craphound.com (Cory Doctorow) Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2024 13:17:39 -0700 Subject: [Plura-list] Of course we can tax billionaires Message-ID: <8915fb68-56e0-4211-85ea-a72ab216c037@craphound.com> Read today's issue online at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/15/piketty-pilled/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ On October 23 at 7PM, I'll be in Decatur, presenting my novel *The Bezzle* at Eagle Eye Books: https://eagleeyebooks.com/event/2024-10-23/cory-doctorow ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ Today's links * Of course we can tax billionaires: They disguise their demands ("don't tax billionaires") as observations ("it is technically impossible to tax billionaires"). * Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. * This day in history: 2009, 2014, 2019 * Upcoming appearances: Where to find me. * Recent appearances: Where I've been. * 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. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Of course we can tax billionaires Billionaires are *pretty confident* that they can't be taxed - not just that they *shouldn't* be taxed, but rather, that it is *technically impossible* to tax the ultra-rich. They're not shy about explaining why, either - and neither is their army of lickspittles. If it's impossible to tax billionaires, then anyone who demands that we tax billionaires is being childish. If taxing billionaires is impossible, then being mad that we're not taxing billionaires is like being mad at gravity. Boy is this old trick getting *old*. It was already pretty thin when Margaret Thatcher rolled it out, insisting that "there is no alternative" to her program of letting the rich get richer and the poor go hungry. Dressing up a demand ("stop trying to think of alternatives") as a scientific truth ("there is no alternative") sets up a world where your opponents are Doing Ideology, while you're doing *science*. Billionaires basically don't pay tax - that's a big part of how they got to be billionaires: https://www.propublica.org/series/the-secret-irs-files By cheating on their taxes, they get to keep - and invest - more money than less-rich people (who get to keep more money than regular people and poor people, obvs). They get *so* much money that they can "invest" it in corrupting the political process, for example, by flushing vast sums of dark money into elections to unseat politicians who care about finance crime and replace them with crytpo-friendly lawmakers who'll turn a blind eye to billionaires' scams: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/10/14/silicon-valley-the-new-lobbying-monster Once someone gets rich enough, they acquire impunity. They become too big to fail. They become too big to jail. They become too big to care. They buy presidents. They *become* president. A decade ago, Thomas Piketty published his landmark *Capital in the 21st Century*, tracing three centuries of global capital flows and showing how extreme inequality creates political instability, leading to bloody revolutions and world wars that level the playing field by destroying most of the world's capital in an orgy of violence, with massive collateral damage: https://memex.craphound.com/2014/06/24/thomas-pikettys-capital-in-the-21st-century/ Piketty argued that unless we taxed the rich, we would attain the same political instability that provoked the World Wars, but in a nuclear-tipped world that was poised on the brink of ecological collapse. He even laid out a program for this taxation, one that took accord of all the things rich people would try to hide their assets. Today, the destruction that Piketty prophesied is on our doorstep, and all over the world, political will is gathering to do something about our billionaire problem. The debate rages from France to dozen-plus US states that are planning wealth taxes on the ultra-rich. Wherever that debate takes hold, billionaires and their proxies pop up to tell us that we're Doing Ideology, that there is no alternative, and that it is *literally impossible* to tax the ultra-rich. In a new blog post, Piketty deftly demolishes this argument, showing how thin the arguments for the impossibility of a billionaire tax really is: https://www.lemonde.fr/blog/piketty/2024/10/15/how-to-tax-billionaires/ First, there's the argument that the ultra-rich are actually quite poor. Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg don't have a lot of money, they have a lot of stock, which they can't sell. Why can't they sell their stock? You'll hear a lot of complicated arguments about illiquidity and the effect on the share-price of a large sell-off, but they all boil down to this: if we make billionaires sell a bunch of their stock, they will be poorer. No *duh*. Piketty has an answer to the liquidity crisis of our poormouthing billionaires: > If finding a buyer is challenging, the government could accept these shares as payment for taxes. If necessary, it could then sell these shares through various methods, such as offering employees to purchase them, which would increase their stake in the company. Though Piketty doesn't say so, billionaires are not *actually* poor. They have *fucktons* of cash, which they acquire through something called "buy, borrow, die," which allows them to created intergenerational dynastic wealth for their failsons: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/buy-borrow-die-rich-avoid-140004536.html Billionaires know they're not poor. They even admit it, when they say, "Okay, but the other reason it's impossible to tax us is that we're richer and therefore more powerful than the governments that want to try it." Piketty points out the shell-game at the core of this argument: the free movement of money that allows for tax-dodging was *created by governments*. They made these laws, so they can change them. Governments that can't exercise their sovereign power to tax the wealthy end up taxing the poor, eroding their legitimacy and hence their power. Taxing the rich - a wildly popular move - will make governments *more* powerful, not less. Big countries like the US (and federations like the EU) have a *lot* of power. The US ended Swiss banking secrecy and manages to tax Americans living abroad. There's no reason that France couldn't pass a wealth-tax that applies to people based on their historical residency: a 51 year old French billionaire who decamps to Switzerland to duck a wealth tax after 50 years in France could be held liable for 50/51 of the wealth tax. The final argument Piketty takes up is the old saw that taxing the rich is illegal, or, if it were made legal, would be unconstitutional. As Piketty says, rich people have taken this position *every single time* they faced meaningful tax enforcement, and they have repeatedly lost this fight. France has repeatedly levied wealth taxes, as long ago as 1789 and as recently as 1945. Taxing the ultra-rich isn't like the secret of embalming Pharaohs - it's not a lost art from a fallen civilization. The US top rate of tax in 1944 was *97%*. The postwar top rate from 1945-63 was 94%, and it was 70% from 1965-80. These was the period of the largest expansion of the US economy in the nation's history. These are the "good old days" Republicans say they want to return to. The super-rich keep getting richer. In France, the 500 richest families were worth a combined ?200b in 2010. Today, it's *?1.2 trillion*. No wonder a global wealth tax is at the top of the agenda for next month's G20 Summit in Rio. Here in the US - where money can easily move across state lines and where multiple states are racing each other to the bottom to be the best onshore-offshore tax- and financial secrecy-haven - state-level millionaire taxes are *kicking ass*. Massachusetts's 2024 millionaire tax has raised more than $1.8b, exceeding all expectations (it was originally benchmarked at $1b), by taxing annual income in excess of $1m at an additional 4%: https://www.boston.com/news/business/2024/05/21/heres-how-much-the-new-massachusetts-millionaires-tax-has-raised-this-year/ This is *exactly* the kind of tax that billionaires say is impossible. It's so easy to turn ordinary income in sheltered income - realizing it as a capital gain, say - so raising taxes on income will do nothing. Who are you gonna believe, billionaires or the 1.8 billion dead presidents lying around the Massachusetts Department of Revenue? But say you *are* worried that taxing ordinary income is a nonstarter because of preferential capital gains treatment. No worry, Washington State has you covered. Its 7% surcharge on capital gains in excess of $250,000 *also* exceeded all expectations, bringing in $600m more than expected in its first year - a year when the stock market fell by 25%: https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/03/when-the-tide-goes-out/#passive-income Okay, but what if all those billionaires flee your state? Good riddance, and don't let the door hit you on the way out. All we need is an exit tax, like the one in California, which levies a one-time 0.4% tax on net worth over $30m for any individual who leaves the state. Billionaires are why we can't have nice things - a sensible climate policy, workers' rights, a functional Supreme Court and legislatures that answer to the people, rather than deep-pocketed donors. The source of billionaires' power isn't mysterious: it's their money. Take away the money, take away the power. With more than a dozen states considering wealth taxes, we're finally in a race to the *top*, to see which state can attack the corrosive power of extreme wealth most aggressively. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Hey look at this * What It Means to Be "A Tad Radical" https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/what-it-means-to-be-a-tad-radical * Legal complaint filed against Fifa's 'abuse of dominance' https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/c981203e61qo * Stop Project 2025 Comic https://stopproject2025comic.org (h/t Sumana Harihareswara) ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? This day in history #15yrsago Why Your Idea to Save Journalism Won?t Work (a checklist) https://www.metafilter.com/85761/How-To-Save-Media#2776753 #15yrsago Brit copyright group says, ?No laptops allowed in cinemas? https://memex.craphound.com/2009/10/15/brit-copyright-group-says-no-laptops-allowed-in-cinemas/ #15yrsago Complex derivatives are ?intractable? ? you can?t tell if they?re being tampered with https://freedom-to-tinker.com/2009/10/15/intractability-financial-derivatives/ #10yrsago Jean Baudrillard predicted the Pumpkin Spice Latte http://www.critical-theory.com/understanding-jean-baudrillard-with-pumpkin-spice-lattes/ #10yrsago Obama administration has secured 526 months of jail time for leakers https://www.aclu.org/news/free-speech/leak-prosecutions-obama-takes-it-11-or-should-we #5yrsago Samuel Delany?s 1977 Star Wars review: why is the future so damned white and male? https://memex.craphound.com/2019/10/15/samuel-delanys-1977-star-wars-review-why-is-the-future-so-damned-white-and-male/ #5yrsago The rich poop different: measuring inequality with sewage https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1910242116 #5yrsago 1 in 14 Trump appointees is a former lobbyist, four times the rate under Obama https://www.propublica.org/article/we-found-a-staggering-281-lobbyists-whove-worked-in-the-trump-administration#169046 #5yrsago The first-ever mandatory California drug price report reveals Big Pharma?s farcical price-gouging https://californiahealthline.org/news/californias-new-transparency-law-reveals-staggering-rise-in-wholesale-drug-prices/ #5yrsago The far right is dominating the information wars through ?keyword signaling? https://www.wired.com/story/devin-nunes-and-the-dark-power-of-keyword-signaling/ #5yrsago Medallion Status: comparison is the thief of joy, and John Hodgman is the thief-taker https://memex.craphound.com/2019/10/15/medallion-status-comparison-is-the-thief-of-joy-and-john-hodgman-is-the-thief-taker/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Upcoming appearances * OKFN Tech We Want Online Summit (Remote), Oct 18 https://okfn.org/en/events/the-tech-we-want-online-summit/ * SOSS Fusion (Atlanta), Oct 22 https://sossfusion2024.sched.com/speaker/cory_doctorow.1qm5qfgn * Eagle Eye Books (Decatur), Oct 23 https://eagleeyebooks.com/event/2024-10-23/cory-doctorow * TusCon (Tucson), Nov 8-10 https://tusconscificon.com/ * International Cooperative Alliance (New Delhi), Nov 24 https://icanewdelhi2024.coop/welcome/pages/Programme * ISSA-LA Holiday Celebration keynote (Los Angeles), Dec 18 https://issala.org/event/issa-la-december-18-dinner-meeting/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Recent appearances * Speciale intervista a Cory Doctorow (Digitalia) https://digitalia.fm/744/ * Was There Ever An Old, Good Internet? (David Graeber Institute) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6Jlxx5TboE * Go Fact Yourself https://maximumfun.org/episodes/go-fact-yourself/ep-158-aida-rodriguez-cory-doctorow/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Latest books * 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 * Picks and Shovels: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books, February 2025 * Unauthorized Bread: a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2025 ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Colophon Today's top sources: Currently writing: * Enshittification: a nonfiction book about platform decay for Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Today's progress: 762 words (63956 words total). * 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 FEB 2025 Latest podcast: Spill, part one (a Little Brother story) https://craphound.com/littlebrother/2024/10/06/spill-part-one-a-little-brother-story/ This work - excluding any serialized fiction - is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? How to get Pluralistic: Blog (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): Pluralistic.net Newsletter (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://pluralistic.net/plura-list Mastodon (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic Medium (no ads, paywalled): https://doctorow.medium.com/ Twitter (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://twitter.com/doctorow Tumblr (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/tagged/pluralistic "*When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla*" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: OpenPGP_0x9026DBBE1FC237AF.asc Type: application/pgp-keys Size: 3650 bytes Desc: OpenPGP public key URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: OpenPGP_signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 203 bytes Desc: OpenPGP digital signature URL: From doctorow at craphound.com Wed Oct 16 12:04:44 2024 From: doctorow at craphound.com (Cory Doctorow) Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2024 09:04:44 -0700 Subject: [Plura-list] You should be using an RSS reader Message-ID: <06cc9e01-2be4-4dc0-a50c-d60627857450@craphound.com> Read today's issue online at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/16/keep-it-really-simple-stupid/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ On October 23 at 7PM, I'll be in Decatur, presenting my novel *The Bezzle* at Eagle Eye Books: https://eagleeyebooks.com/event/2024-10-23/cory-doctorow ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ Today's links * You should be using an RSS reader: The one thing you can choose to do that will make your internet life better and make the internet better for everyone else, too. * Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. * This day in history: 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019, 2023 * Upcoming appearances: Where to find me. * Recent appearances: Where I've been. * 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. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? You should be using an RSS reader No matter how hard we all wish it were otherwise, the sad fact is that there aren't really individual solutions to systemic problems. For example: your personal diligence in recycling will have no meaningful impact on the climate emergency. I get it. People write to me all the time, they say, "What can I change about my life to fight enshittification, or, at the very least, to reduce the amount of enshittification that I, personally, experience?" It's frustrating, but my general answer is, "Join a movement. Get involved with a union, with EFF, with the FSF. Tell your Congressional candidate to defend Lina Khan from billionaire Dem donors who want her fired. Do something *systemic*." There's very little you can do as a consumer. You're not going to shop your way out of monopoly capitalism. Now that Amazon has destroyed most of the brick-and-mortar *and* digital stores out of business, boycotting Amazon often just means doing without. The collective action problem of leaving Twitter or Facebook is so insurmountable that you end up stuck there, with a bunch of people you love and rely on, who all love each other, all hate the platform, but can't agree on a day and time to leave or a destination to leave *for* and so end up stuck there. I've been experiencing some challenging stuff in my personal life lately and yesterday, I just found myself unable to deal with my usual podcast fare so I tuned into the videos from the very last XOXO, in search of uplifting fare: https://www.youtube.com/@xoxofest I found it. Talks by Dan Olson, Cabel Sasser, Ed Yong and many others, especially Molly White: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTaeVVAvk-c Molly's talk was so, so good, but when I got to her call to action, I found myself pulling a bit of a face: > But the platforms do not exist without the people, and there are a lot more of us than there are of them. The platforms have installed themselves in a position of power, but they are also vulnerable... Are the platforms *really* that vulnerable? The collective action problem is *so* hard, the switching costs are *so* high - maybe the fact that "there's a lot more of us than there are of them" is a bug, not a feature. The more of us there are, the thornier our collective action problem and the higher the switching costs, after all. And then I had a realization: the conduit through which I experience Molly's excellent work *is* totally enshittification-proof, and the more I use it, the easier it is for *everyone* to be less enshittified. This conduit is anti-lock-in, it works for nearly the whole internet. It is surveillance-resistant, far more accessible than the web or any mobile app interface. It is my secret super-power. It's RSS. RSS (one of those ancient internet acronyms with multiple definitions, including, but not limited to, "Really Simple Syndication") is an invisible, automatic way for internet-connected systems to public "feeds." For example, rather than reloading the *Wired* homepage every day and trying to figure out which stories are new (their layout makes this *very* hard to do!), you can just sign up for *Wired*'s RSS feed, and use an RSS reader to monitor the site and preview new stories the moment they're published. *Wired* pushes about 600 words from each article into that feed, stripped of the usual stuff that makes *Wired* nearly impossible to read: no 20-second delay subscription pop-up, text in a font and size of your choosing. You can follow *Wired*'s feed without any cookies, and *Wired* gets no information about which of its stories you read. *Wired* doesn't even get to know that you're monitoring its feed. I don't mean to pick on *Wired* here. This goes for every news source I follow - from CNN to the *New York Times*. But RSS isn't just good for the news! It's good for *everything*. Your friends' blogs? Every blogging platform emits an RSS feed by default. You can follow every one of them in your reader. Not just blogs. Do you follow a bunch of substackers or other newsletters? They've *all* got RSS feeds. You can read those newsletters without ever registering in the analytics of the platforms that host them. The text shows up in black and white (not the sadistic, 8-point, 80% grey-on-white type these things all default to). It is *always* delivered, without any risk of your email provider misclassifying an update as spam: https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/10/dead-letters/ Did you know that, by default, your email sends information to mailing list platforms about your reading activity? The platform gets to know if you opened the message, and often how far along you've read in it. On top of that, they get all the private information your browser or app leaks about you, including your location. This is *unbelievably* gross, and you get to bypass *all* of it, just by reading in RSS. Are your friends too pithy for a newsletter, preferring to quip on social media? Unfortunately, it's pretty hard to get an RSS feed from Insta/FB/Twitter, but all those new ones that have popped up? They all have feeds. You can follow any Mastodon account (which means you can follow any Threads account) via RSS. Same for Bluesky. That also goes for older platforms, like Tumblr and Medium. There's RSS for Hacker News, and there's a sub-feed for the comments on every story. You can get RSS feeds for the Fedex, UPS and USPS parcels you're awaiting, too. Your local politician's website probably has an RSS feed. Ditto your state and national reps. There's an RSS feed for each federal agency (the FCC has a great blog!). Your RSS reader lets you put all these feeds into folders if you want. You can even create automatic folders, based on keywords, or even things like "infrequently updated sites" (I follow a bunch of people via RSS who only update a couple times per year - cough, Danny O'Brien, cough - and never miss a post). Your RSS reader doesn't (necessarily) have an algorithm. By default, you'll get everything as it appears, in reverse-chronological order. Does that remind you of anything? Right: this is how social media used to work, before it was enshittified. You can single-handedly disenshittify your experience of virtually the entire web, just by switching to RSS, traveling back in time to the days when Facebook and Twitter were more interested in showing you the things you *asked* to see, rather than the ads and boosted content someone else would pay to cram into your eyeballs. Now, you sign up to so many feeds that you're feeling overwhelmed and you *want* an algorithm to prioritize posts - or recommend content. Lots of RSS readers have some kind of algorithm and recommendation system (I use News, which offers both, though I don't use them - I *like* the glorious higgeldy-piggeldy of the undifferentiated firehose feed). But *you* control the algorithm, *you* control the recommendations. And if a new RSS reader pops up with an algorithm you're dying to try, you can export all the feeds you follow with a single click, which will generate an OPML file. Then, with one click, you can import that OPML file into *any other RSS reader in existence* and all your feeds will be seamlessly migrated there. You can delete your old account, or you can even use different readers for different purposes. You can access RSS in a browser or in an app on your phone (most RSS readers have an app), and they'll sync up, so a story you mark to read later on your phone will be waiting for you the next time you load up your reader in a browser tab, and you won't see the same stories twice (unless you want to, in which case you can mark them as unread). RSS basically works like social media *should* work. Using RSS is a chance to visit a utopian future in which the platforms have no power, and all power is vested in publishers, who get to decide what to publish, and in readers, who have total control over what they read and how, without leaking *any* personal information through the simple act of reading. And here's the *best* part: every time you use RSS, you bring that world closer into being! The collective action problem that the publishers and friends and politicians and businesses you care about is caused by the fact that everyone they want to reach is on a platform, so if they leave the platform, they'll lose that community. But the more people who use RSS to follow them, the less they'll depend on the platform. Unlike those largely useless, performative boycotts of widely used platforms, switching to RSS doesn't require that you give anything up. Not only does switching to RSS let you continue to follow all the newsletters, webpages and social media accounts you're following now, it makes doing so *better*: more private, more accessible, and less enshittified. Switching to RSS lets you experience just the good parts of the enshitternet, but that experience is delivered in manner that the new, good internet we're all dying for. My own newsletter is delivered in fulltext via RSS. If you're reading this as a Mastodon or Twitter thread, on Tumblr or on Medium, or via email, you can get it by RSS instead: https://pluralistic.net/feed/ Don't worry about which RSS reader you start with. It literally doesn't matter. Remember, you can switch readers with two clicks and take all the feeds you've subscribed to with you! If you want a recommendation, I have nothing but praise for Newsblur, which I've been paying $2/month for since 2011 (!): https://newsblur.com/ Subscribing to feeds is super-easy, too: the links for RSS feeds are invisibly embedded in web-pages. Just paste the URL of a web-page into your RSS reader's "add feed" box and it'll automagically figure out where the feed lives and add it to your subscriptions. It's still true that the new, good internet will require a movement to overcome the collective action problems and the legal barriers to disenshittifying things. Almost nothing you do as an individual is going to make a difference. But using RSS will! Using RSS to follow the stuff that matters to you will have an immediate, profoundly beneficial impact on your own digital life - and it will appreciably, irreversibly nudge the whole internet towards a better state. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Hey look at this * You Can't Make Friends With The Rockstars https://www.wheresyoured.at/rockstars/ * Tom Lehrer Discovers Australia (And Vice Versa) https://taylorjessen.blogspot.com/2024/10/tom-lehrer-tom-lehrer-discovers.html * Conceptual models of space colonization https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2024/10/conceptual-models-of-space-col.html ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? This day in history #20yrsago Sony bullies Retropod off the net https://web.archive.org/web/20041018040446/http://www.retropod.com/ #15yrsago This Side of Jordan ? Violent jazz age novel by Charles M Schulz?s son Monte https://memex.craphound.com/2009/10/16/this-side-of-jordan-violent-jazz-age-novel-by-charles-m-schulzs-son-monte/ #10yrsago FBI chief demands an end to cellphone security https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/17/us/politics/fbi-director-in-policy-speech-calls-dark-devices-hindrance-to-crime-solving.html #10yrsago Please, Disney: put back John?s grandad?s Haunted Mansion tombstone https://thedisneyblog.com/2014/10/16/petition-to-return-a-lost-tombstone-to-the-haunted-mansion/ #10yrsago How Microsoft hacked trademark law to let it secretly seize whole businesses https://www.wired.com/2014/10/microsoft-pinkerton/ #10yrsago If you think you?ve anonymized a data set, you?re probably wrong https://web.archive.org/web/20141014172827/http://research.neustar.biz/2014/09/15/riding-with-the-stars-passenger-privacy-in-the-nyc-taxicab-dataset/ #10yrsago The lost cyber-crayolas of the mid-1990s https://memex.craphound.com/2014/10/16/the-lost-cyber-crayolas-of-the-mid-1990s/ #5yrsago ?The People?s Money?: A crisp, simple, thorough explanation of how government spending is paid for https://neweconomicperspectives.org/2019/10/the-peoples-money-part-1.html #5yrsago What it?s like to have Apple rip off your successful Mac app https://memex.craphound.com/2019/10/16/what-its-like-to-have-apple-rip-off-your-successful-mac-app/ #5yrsago Blizzard suspends college gamers from competitive play after they display ?Free Hong Kong? poster https://www.vice.com/en/article/three-college-hearthstone-protesters-banned-for-six-months/ #5yrsago Terrified of bad press after its China capitulation, Blizzard cancels NYC Overwatch event https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-15/blizzard-cancels-overwatch-event-as-it-tries-to-contain-backlash #5yrsago A San Diego Republican operator ran a massive, multimillion-dollar Facebook scam that targeted boomers https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/facebook-subscription-trap-free-trial-scam-ads-inc #5yrsago Britain?s unbelievably stupid, dangerous porn ?age verification? scheme is totally dead https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/10/uk-government-abandons-planned-porn-age-verification-scheme/ #5yrsago Not only is Google?s auto-delete good for privacy, it?s also good news for competition https://memex.craphound.com/2019/10/16/not-only-is-googles-auto-delete-good-for-privacy-its-also-good-news-for-competition/ #5yrsago Edward Snowden on the global war on encryption: ?This is our new battleground? https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/15/encryption-lose-privacy-us-uk-australia-facebook #5yrsago In Kansas?s poor, sick places, hospitals and debt collectors send the ailing to debtor?s prison https://features.propublica.org/medical-debt/when-medical-debt-collectors-decide-who-gets-arrested-coffeyville-kansas #5yrsago Want a ride in a Lyft? Just sign away your right to sue if they kill, maim, rape or cheat you https://memex.craphound.com/2019/10/16/want-a-ride-in-a-lyft-just-sign-away-your-right-to-sue-if-they-kill-maim-rape-or-cheat-you/ #5yrsago #RedForEd rebooted: Chicago?s teachers are back on strike https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/union-strike-chicago-teachers/ #1yrago One of America's most corporate-crime-friendly bankruptcy judges forced to recuse himself https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/16/texas-two-step/#david-jones ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Upcoming appearances * OKFN Tech We Want Online Summit (Remote), Oct 18 https://okfn.org/en/events/the-tech-we-want-online-summit/ * SOSS Fusion (Atlanta), Oct 22 https://sossfusion2024.sched.com/speaker/cory_doctorow.1qm5qfgn * Eagle Eye Books (Decatur), Oct 23 https://eagleeyebooks.com/event/2024-10-23/cory-doctorow * TusCon (Tucson), Nov 8-10 https://tusconscificon.com/ * International Cooperative Alliance (New Delhi), Nov 24 https://icanewdelhi2024.coop/welcome/pages/Programme * ISSA-LA Holiday Celebration keynote (Los Angeles), Dec 18 https://issala.org/event/issa-la-december-18-dinner-meeting/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Recent appearances * Speciale intervista a Cory Doctorow (Digitalia) https://digitalia.fm/744/ * Was There Ever An Old, Good Internet? (David Graeber Institute) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6Jlxx5TboE * Go Fact Yourself https://maximumfun.org/episodes/go-fact-yourself/ep-158-aida-rodriguez-cory-doctorow/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Latest books * 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 * Picks and Shovels: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books, February 2025 * Unauthorized Bread: a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2025 ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Colophon Today's top sources: Currently writing: * Enshittification: a nonfiction book about platform decay for Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Today's progress: 818 words (64779 words total). * 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 FEB 2025 Latest podcast: Spill, part one (a Little Brother story) https://craphound.com/littlebrother/2024/10/06/spill-part-one-a-little-brother-story/ This work - excluding any serialized fiction - is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? How to get Pluralistic: Blog (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): Pluralistic.net Newsletter (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://pluralistic.net/plura-list Mastodon (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic Medium (no ads, paywalled): https://doctorow.medium.com/ Twitter (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://twitter.com/doctorow Tumblr (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/tagged/pluralistic "*When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla*" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: OpenPGP_0x9026DBBE1FC237AF.asc Type: application/pgp-keys Size: 3650 bytes Desc: OpenPGP public key URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: OpenPGP_signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 203 bytes Desc: OpenPGP digital signature URL: From doctorow at craphound.com Fri Oct 18 18:00:28 2024 From: doctorow at craphound.com (Cory Doctorow) Date: Fri, 18 Oct 2024 15:00:28 -0700 Subject: [Plura-list] Blue states should play "constitutional hardball" Message-ID: Read today's issue online at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/18/states-rights/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ Next Wednesday (October 23) at 7PM, I'll be in Decatur, presenting my novel *The Bezzle* at Eagle Eye Books: https://eagleeyebooks.com/event/2024-10-23/cory-doctorow ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ Today's links * Blue states should play "constitutional hardball": Scooping up medical professionals, teachers, doctors and anyone with a trans kid. * Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. * This day in history: 2004, 2014, 2019, 2023 * Upcoming appearances: Where to find me. * Recent appearances: Where I've been. * 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. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Blue states should play "constitutional hardball" Nothing's more frustrating that watching the GOP smash norms and decency to advance policies that harm millions of Americas, unless it's that, plus Democratic officials stamping their feet and saying, "C'mon guys, *play fair*." The GOP's game is called "constitutional hardball." Think: Mitch McConnell refusing to hold confirmation hearings on Obama's federal judiciary appointments, not never for Merrick Garland's Supreme Court seat - then filling the Federal judiciary with the least-qualified, most FedSoc-addled lunatics in US history, all for lifetime appointments. As bad as this is at the federal level, it's even worse at in the states, especially the Republican "trifecta" states where the GOP holds the governorship and the state house and senate, where shameless gerrymandering and legislative attacks on hard-won ballot measures are the order of the day. GOP-held state governments engage in rampant interstate aggression, targeting out-of-state abortion providers, publishers, and journalists. This is a one-sided Cold Civil War, because state Dems, for the most part, are unwilling to play hardball in return (the closest they come is when, say, California sets strict emissions controls and manufacturers adopt them nationwide, rather than making special cars for the giant California market). Republicans engage in constitutional hardball and Dems refuse to fight back, a phenomenon called "asymmetrical constitutional hardball": https://columbialawreview.org/content/asymmetric-constitutional-hardball/ Writing for *The American Prospect*, Arkadi Gerney and Sarah Knight make the case for *symmetrical* constitutional hardball: https://prospect.org/politics/2024-10-18-playing-hardball/ The pair argue first, that the best way to get Republican state houses to play fair is to credibly threaten them with retaliatory action. They cite the recent attempt at a last-minute change the way that Nebraska's Electoral College votes are apportioned, which would have given all of five the state's EC votes to Trump. Maine threatened to effect the same change to *its* Electoral College system, which would have given all four of its EC votes to Harris. Nebraska surrendered. But there's also a second advantage to playing Constitutional Hardball: it makes blue states *better*. For example, Minnesota gives free college tuition to exceptional low/middle-income students. Neighboring North Dakota got tired of losing all its smartest kids Minnesota schools and created its own subsidy. As Gerney and Knight point out, Minnesota (and other blue states) still have a huge advantage when it comes to attracting top talent, because attending university in a state with legal abortion is *vastly* preferable (and safer) than doing a degree in a forced-birth state. Red states are bent on making life *horrible* for some really *great* people. The hardworking, talented Haitian migrants caught in the Springfield pogroms that Trump incited would be a fine addition to any blue state town - anyone who's got the gumption to haul ass out of a failed state and make their all the way to Springfield is gonna be a *fantastic* neighbor, citizen and worker, just like my refugee grandparents and father, who endured a million times more hardship than their neighbors ever did, getting to Toronto, finding jobs, and starting their family. Influxes of young, hardworking immigrants are *especially* good for rural towns with dwindling populations. No wonder rural towns with above-average net migration swung for Biden in 2020. All over America, families are despairing of their lives in red states. Whether you're worried that you or someone you love might need to terminate a pregnancy, or you're worried about gender-affirming care for you or a loved one, you can put your worries to rest in a blue state. Same goes for nurses and doctors who are worried they can't do medicine unless it accords with the imaginary dictates of Bronze Age prophets as claimed by pencil-neck Hitler wannabe Bible-thumper with a private jet and a face from Walmart. Fill the blue states with great schools, libraries and hospitals, and invite everyone who wants to do their job in a free country to come and work at 'em. Line every state line with abortion and mifepristone clinics, and set up billboards advertising the quality of life, the jobs, and the freedom in blue state America. Every blue state public pension fund should ban investments in fossil fuels, and invest like crazy in renewables, especially in Texas, to hasten the bankrupting of the petro-kleptocracy that controls the state. Blue states should tack surcharges on goods imported from "right to work" states where unions are effectively banned, to compensate for the additional product testing needed to ensure that scab products are safe to use (ahem, Boeing). Create joint occupational licensure rules across blue states: if you're certified as a teacher, nurse, hairdresser or auto-mechanic in New York, you should be able to carry that certification with you to Minnesota, California, or Maine. Create multi-state funding pools to build public housing. Offer med-school scholarships to the smartest red state kids, at universities where they'll learn evidence-based obstetrics rather than the Lysenokist nonsense taught at the Roy Moore College of Pediatrics and Obstetrics. Dems have to get over their fear of "states' rights" and start playing state-level hardball. This doesn't mean escalating cruelty. Quite the contrary: every cruel measure enacted as red state red meat is a chance for blue states to extend a kindness, and capture even more of the best, brightest and kindest of the nation, creating a race to the top that Republicans can only win by abandoning their performative cruelty and corruption. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Hey look at this * Organized Money https://www.organizedmoney.fm * The FTC is finally making it easier to cancel your gym membership https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/16/24271649/ftc-click-to-cancel-subscriptions-final-rule * EFF and IFPTE Local 20 Attain Labor Contract https://www.eff.org/press/releases/eff-and-ifpte-local-20-attain-labor-contract ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? This day in history #20yrsago Interview with me on All About Symbian https://web.archive.org/web/20041209231331/http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/features/viewarticle.php?id=110 #20yrsago Weinberger: Photo-organizing infocalypse looms https://web.archive.org/web/20040715000000*/http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/photo.html #10yrsago Comcast not welcome in Worcester, Mass thanks to bad customer service https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/10/its-a-terrible-company-comcast-not-welcome-in-city-council-says/ #10yrsago Justin Hall at XOXO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mE6xyFyv7xk #10yrsago Umbrella Revolution protesters retake the streets https://web.archive.org/web/20141020034358/http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/content/chaos-hong-kong-protest-camp-police-use-batons-pepper-spray-repel-surge-protesters #10yrsago CTO of NSA is moonlighting for Keith Alexander?s blue-chip rent-a-cybercops https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/oct/17/senior-nsa-official-moonlighting-private-cybersecurity-firm #10yrsago If you don?t agree to the new Wii U EULA, Nintendo will kill-switch it https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/10/nintendo-updates-take-wii-u-hostage-until-you-agree-new-legal-terms #10yrsago Canadian government threatens bird watchers for writing concerned letter about bee die-off https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/revenue-canada-targets-birdwatchers-for-political-activity-1.2799546 #5yrsago Design fiction, politicized: the wearable face projector https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PoudPCevN0 #5yrsago Cable is bullshit, and so is 5G: give me fiber or give me death! https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/why-fiber-vastly-superior-cable-and-5g #5yrsago Relatives and cronies of Cambodia?s dictator have bought ?golden passports? from Cyprus and exfiltrated millions https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/cambodia-hunsen-wealth/ #5yrsago Berkeley city council unanimously votes to ban facial recognition technology https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/victory-berkeley-city-council-unanimously-votes-ban-face-recognition #5yrsago Greta Grotesk: a font based on Greta Thunberg?s hand-lettered signs https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f6JdU9jG6J69mngi5-xYwbKXtCcnslJo/view #5yrsago Leaks reveal how creepy, cultish monopolist Intuit lobbied Congress and the IRS to kill free tax-filing https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-fight-to-stop-americans-from-filing-their-taxes-for-free#168905 #5yrsago 6 years after expose revealed docs taking millions from pharma companies, it?s only getting worse https://www.propublica.org/article/we-found-over-700-doctors-who-were-paid-more-than-a-million-dollars-by-drug-and-medical-device-companies#169337 #5yrsago Pacifica Radio ignores injunction, continues to play canned content on NYC?s WBAI https://gothamist.com/news/judge-rules-wbai-can-return-air-owners-refuse-comply #5yrsago McSweeney?s: sure, Bernie is incredibly popular, but can he sway the ?completely hateable assholes, who want what?s worst for everyone?? https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/bernies-policies-are-good-but-how-can-he-appeal-to-the-absolute-worst-people-ever #5yrsago The first book collecting the new Nancy comic is incredibly, fantastically, impossibly great https://memex.craphound.com/2019/10/17/the-first-book-collecting-the-new-nancy-comic-is-incredibly-fantastically-impossibly-great/ #1yrago Deb Chachra's "How Infrastructure Works" https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/17/care-work/#charismatic-megaprojects #1yrago What Americans want https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/18/the-people-no/#tell-ya-what-i-want-what-i-really-really-want ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Upcoming appearances * SOSS Fusion (Atlanta), Oct 22 https://sossfusion2024.sched.com/speaker/cory_doctorow.1qm5qfgn * Eagle Eye Books (Decatur), Oct 23 https://eagleeyebooks.com/event/2024-10-23/cory-doctorow * TusCon (Tucson), Nov 8-10 https://tusconscificon.com/ * International Cooperative Alliance (New Delhi), Nov 24 https://icanewdelhi2024.coop/welcome/pages/Programme * ISSA-LA Holiday Celebration keynote (Los Angeles), Dec 18 https://issala.org/event/issa-la-december-18-dinner-meeting/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Recent appearances * Speciale intervista a Cory Doctorow (Digitalia) https://digitalia.fm/744/ * Was There Ever An Old, Good Internet? (David Graeber Institute) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6Jlxx5TboE * Go Fact Yourself https://maximumfun.org/episodes/go-fact-yourself/ep-158-aida-rodriguez-cory-doctorow/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Latest books * 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 * Picks and Shovels: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books, February 2025 * Unauthorized Bread: a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2025 ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Colophon Today's top sources: Currently writing: * Enshittification: a nonfiction book about platform decay for Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Today's progress: 768 words (66349 words total). * 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 FEB 2025 Latest podcast: Spill, part one (a Little Brother story) https://craphound.com/littlebrother/2024/10/06/spill-part-one-a-little-brother-story/ This work - excluding any serialized fiction - is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? How to get Pluralistic: Blog (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): Pluralistic.net Newsletter (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://pluralistic.net/plura-list Mastodon (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic Medium (no ads, paywalled): https://doctorow.medium.com/ Twitter (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://twitter.com/doctorow Tumblr (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/tagged/pluralistic "*When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla*" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: OpenPGP_0x9026DBBE1FC237AF.asc Type: application/pgp-keys Size: 3650 bytes Desc: OpenPGP public key URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: OpenPGP_signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 203 bytes Desc: OpenPGP digital signature URL: From doctorow at craphound.com Sat Oct 19 13:21:31 2024 From: doctorow at craphound.com (Cory Doctorow) Date: Sat, 19 Oct 2024 10:21:31 -0700 Subject: [Plura-list] Penguin Random House, AI, and writers' rights Message-ID: <8c5afeee-33ff-476d-ac2e-1556d51d2663@craphound.com> Read today's issue online at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/19/gander-sauce/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ This Wednesday (October 23) at 7PM, I'll be in Decatur, Georgia, presenting my novel *The Bezzle* at Eagle Eye Books: https://eagleeyebooks.com/event/2024-10-23/cory-doctorow ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ Today's links * Penguin Random House, AI, and writers' rights: "You can't train an AI with our books" isn't the same thing as "We won't train an AI with YOUR book." * Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. * This day in history: 2009, 2014, 2019, 2023 * Upcoming appearances: Where to find me. * Recent appearances: Where I've been. * 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. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Penguin Random House, AI, and writers' rights My friend Teresa Nielsen Hayden is a wellspring of wise sayings, like "you're not responsible for what you do in other people's dreams," and my all time favorite, from the Napster era: "Just because you're on their side, it doesn't mean they're on your side." The record labels hated Napster, and so did many musicians, and when those musicians sided with their labels in the legal and public relations campaigns against file-sharing, they lent both legal and public legitimacy to the labels' cause, which ultimately prevailed. But the labels weren't on musicians' side. The demise of Napster and with it, the idea of a blanket-license system for internet music distribution (similar to the systems for radio, live performance, and canned music at venues and shops) firmly established that new services *must* obtain permission from the labels in order to operate. That era is *very* good for the labels. The three-label cartel - Universal, Warner and Sony - was in a position to dictate terms like Spotify, who handed over billions of dollars worth of stock, and let the Big Three co-design the royalty scheme that Spotify would operate under. If you know anything about Spotify payments, it's probably this: they are *extremely* unfavorable to artists. This is true - but that doesn't mean it's unfavorable to the Big Three labels. The Big Three get guaranteed monthly payments (much of which is booked as "unattributable royalties" that the labels can disperse or keep as they see fit), along with free inclusion on key playlists and other valuable services. What's more, the ultra-low payouts to artists increase the value of the labels' stock in Spotify, since the less Spotify has to pay for music, the better it looks to investors. The Big Three - who own 70% of all music ever recorded, thanks to an orgy of mergers - make up the shortfall from these low per-stream rates with guaranteed payments and promo. But the indy labels and musicians that account for the remaining 30% are out in the cold. They are locked into the same fractional-penny-per-stream royalty scheme as the Big Three, but they don't get gigantic monthly cash guarantees, and they have to pay the playlist placement the Big Three get for free. Just because you're on their side, it doesn't mean they're on your side: https://pluralistic.net/2022/09/12/streaming-doesnt-pay/#stunt-publishing In a very important, material sense, creative workers - writers, filmmakers, photographers, illustrators, painters and musicians - are not on the same side as the labels, agencies, studios and publishers that bring our work to market. Those companies are not charities; they are driven to maximize profits and an important way to do that is to reduce costs, including and especially the cost of paying us for our work. It's easy to miss this fact because the *workers* at these giant entertainment companies *are* our class allies. The same impulse to constrain payments to writers is in play when entertainment companies think about how much they pay editors, assistants, publicists, and the mail-room staff. These are the people that creative workers deal with on a day to day basis, and they *are* on our side, by and large, and it's easy to conflate these people with their employers. This class war need not be the central fact of creative workers' relationship with our publishers, labels, studios, etc. When there are *lots* of these entertainment companies, they compete with one another for our work (and for the labor of the workers who bring that work to market), which increases our share of the profit our work produces. But we live in an era of extreme market concentration in every sector, including entertainment, where we deal with five publishers, four studios, three labels, two ad-tech companies and a single company that controls all the ebooks and audiobooks. That concentration makes it *much* harder for artists to bargain effectively with entertainments companies, and that means that it's possible -likely, even - for entertainment companies to gain market advantages that aren't shared with creative workers. In other words, when your field is dominated by a cartel, you may be on on their side, but they're almost certainly *not* on your side. This week, Penguin Random House, the largest publisher in the history of the human race, made headlines when it changed the copyright notice in its books to ban AI training: https://www.thebookseller.com/news/penguin-random-house-underscores-copyright-protection-in-ai-rebuff The copyright page now includes this phrase: > No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner for the purpose of training artificial intelligence technologies or systems. Many writers are celebrating this move as a victory for creative workers' rights over AI companies, who have raised hundreds of billions of dollars in part by promising our bosses that they can fire us and replace us with algorithms. But these writers are assuming that just because they're on Penguin Random House's side, PRH is on their side. They're assuming that if PRH fights against AI companies training bots on their work for free, that this means PRH won't allow bots to be trained on their work *at all*. This is a pretty naive take. What's *far* more likely is that PRH will use whatever legal rights it has to insist that AI companies *pay* it for the right to train chatbots on the books we write. It is vanishingly unlikely that PRH will share that license money with the writers whose books are then shoveled into the bot's training-hopper. It's also extremely likely that PRH will try to use the output of chatbots to erode our wages, or fire us altogether and replace our work with AI slop. This is speculation on my part, but it's *informed* speculation. Note that PRH did *not* announce that it would allow *authors* to assert the contractual right to block their work from being used to train a chatbot, or that it was offering authors a share of any training license fees, or a share of the income from anything produced by bots that are trained on our work. Indeed, as publishing boiled itself down from the thirty-some mid-sized publishers that flourished when I was a baby writer into the Big Five that dominate the field today, their contracts have gotten notably, materially worse for writers: https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/19/reasonable-agreement/ This is completely unsurprising. In any auction, the more serious bidders there are, the higher the final price will be. When there were thirty potential bidders for our work, we got a better deal on average than we do now, when there are at most five bidders. Though this is self-evident, Penguin Random House insists that it's not true. Back when PRH was trying to buy Simon & Schuster (thereby reducing the Big Five publishers to the Big Four), they insisted that they would continue to bid against *themselves*, with editors at Simon & Schuster (a division of PRH) bidding against editors at Penguin (a division of PRH) and Random House (a division of PRH). This is obvious nonsense, as Stephen King said when he testified against the merger (which was subsequently blocked by the court): "You might as well say you?re going to have a husband and wife bidding against each other for the same house. It would be sort of very gentlemanly and sort of, 'After you' and 'After you'": https://apnews.com/article/stephen-king-government-and-politics-b3ab31d8d8369e7feed7ce454153a03c Penguin Random House didn't become the largest publisher in history by publishing better books or doing better marketing. They attained their scale by buying out their rivals. The company is actually a kind of colony organism made up of dozens of once-independent publishers. Every one of those acquisitions reduced the bargaining power of writers, even writers who *don't* write for PRH, because the disappearance of a credible bidder for our work into the PRH corporate portfolio reduces the potential bidders for our work no matter who we're selling it to. I predict that PRH will not allow its writers to add a clause to their contracts forbidding PRH from using their work to train an AI. That prediction is based on my direct experience with two of the other Big Five publishers, where I know for a fact that they point-blank refused to do this, and told the writer that any insistence on including this contract would lead to the offer being rescinded. The Big Five have *remarkably* similar contracting terms. Or rather, *unremarkably* similar contracts, since concentrated industries tend to converge in their operational behavior. The Big Five are similar enough that it's generally understood that a writer who sues one of the Big Five publishers will likely find themselves blackballed at the rest. My own agent gave me this advice when one of the Big Five stole more than $10,000 from me - canceled a project that I was part of because another person involved with it pulled out, and then took five figures out of the killfee specified in my contract, just because they could. My agent told me that even though I would certainly win that lawsuit, it would come at the cost of my career, since it would put me in bad odor with all of the Big Five. The writers who are cheering on Penguin Random House's new copyright notice are operating under the mistaken belief that this will make it less likely that our bosses will buy an AI in hopes of replacing us with it: https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/09/ai-monkeys-paw/#bullied-schoolkids That's not true. Giving Penguin Random House the right to demand license fees for AI training will do nothing to reduce the likelihood that Penguin Random House will choose to buy an AI in hopes of eroding our wages or firing us. But something else will! The US Copyright Office has issued a series of rulings, upheld by the courts, asserting that nothing made by an AI can be copyrighted. By statute and international treaty, copyright is a right reserved for works of *human* creativity (that's why the "monkey selfie" can't be copyrighted): https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/20/everything-made-by-an-ai-is-in-the-public-domain/ All other things being equal, entertainment companies would prefer to pay creative workers as little as possible (or *nothing at all*) for our work. But as strong as their preference for reducing payments to artists is, they are *far* more committed to being able to control who can copy, sell and distribute the works they release. In other words, when confronted with a choice of "We don't have to pay artists anymore" and "Anyone can sell or give away our products and we won't get a dime from it," entertainment companies will pay artists *all day long*. Remember that dope everyone laughed at because he scammed his way into winning an art contest with some AI slop then got angry because people were copying "his" picture? That guy's insistence that his slop should be entitled to copyright is *far* more dangerous than the original scam of pretending that he painted the slop in the first place: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/10/artist-appeals-copyright-denial-for-prize-winning-ai-generated-work/ If PRH was intervening in these Copyright Office AI copyrightability cases to say AI works can't be copyrighted, *that* would be an instance where we were on their side *and* they were on our side. The day they submit an amicus brief or rulemaking comment supporting no-copyright-for-AI, I'll sing their praises to the heavens. But this change to PRH's copyright notice won't improve writers' bank-balances. Giving writers the ability to control AI training isn't going to stop PRH and other giant entertainment companies from training AIs with our work. They'll just say, "If you don't sign away the right to train an AI with your work, we won't publish you." The biggest predictor of how much money an artist sees from the exploitation of their work isn't how many exclusive rights we have, it's how much *bargaining power* we have. When you bargain against five publishers, four studios or three labels, any new rights you get from Congress or the courts is simply transferred to them the next time you negotiate a contract. As Rebecca Giblin and I write in our 2022 book *Chokepoint Capitalism*: > Giving a creative worker more copyright is like giving your bullied schoolkid more lunch money. No matter how much you give them, the bullies will take it all. Give your kid enough lunch money and the bullies will be able to bribe the principle to look the other way. Keep giving that kid lunch money and the bullies will be able to launch a global appeal demanding more lunch money for hungry kids! https://chokepointcapitalism.com/ As creative workers' fortunes have declined through the neoliberal era of mergers and consolidation, we've allowed ourselves to be distracted with campaigns to get us more copyright, rather than more bargaining power. There *are* copyright policies that get us more bargaining power. Banning AI works from getting copyright gives us more bargaining power. After all, just because AI can't do our job, it doesn't follow that AI salesmen can't convince our bosses to fire us and replace us with incompetent AI: https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/11/robots-stole-my-jerb/#computer-says-no Then there's "copyright termination." Under the 1976 Copyright Act, creative workers can take back the copyright to their works after 35 years, even if they sign a contract giving up the copyright for its full term: https://pluralistic.net/2021/09/26/take-it-back/ Creative workers from George Clinton to Stephen King to Stan Lee have converted this right to money - unlike, say, longer terms of copyright, which are simply transferred to entertainment companies through non-negotiable contractual clauses. Rather than joining our publishers in fighting for longer terms of copyright, we could be demanding *shorter* terms for copyright termination, say, the right to take back a popular book or song or movie or illustration after 14 years (as was the case in the original US copyright system), and resell it for more money as a risk-free, proven success. Until then, remember, just because you're on their side, it doesn't mean they're on your side. They don't want to prevent AI slop from reducing your wages, they just want to make sure it's *their* AI slop puts you on the breadline. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Hey look at this * How to find helpful content in a sea of made-for-Google BS https://housefresh.com/finding-helpful-content-in-an-enshittified-google/ (h/t Giselle Navarro) * This Must Be the Place tattoos https://www.tiktok.com/@rachelbaldwintattoo/video/7426065166036372769 (h/t Waxy) * Blue Cross Blue Shield To Pay Largest Settlement in U.S. Antitrust Health Care History: $2.8 Billion https://healthcareuncovered.substack.com/p/blue-cross-blue-shield-to-pay-largest (h/t Naked Capitalism) ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? This day in history #15yrsago The Magicians: a fantasy novel of wonder without sentimentality https://memex.craphound.com/2009/10/19/the-magicians-a-fantasy-novel-of-wonder-without-sentimentality/ #15yrsago My DIY publishing experiment, WITH A LITTLE HELP https://web.archive.org/web/20091022004338/http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6702526.html #15yrsago FCC study: open access and competition produce better broadband https://transition.fcc.gov/stage/pdf/Berkman_Center_Broadband_Study_13Oct09.pdf #10yrsago Why (and how) games are art https://web.archive.org/web/20141015144309/http://herocomplex.latimes.com/comics/cory-doctorow-talks-up-in-real-life-and-wang-feels-down-over-gamergate/ #10yrsago Typewriter-parts cat https://memex.craphound.com/2014/10/19/typewriter-parts-cat/ #5yrsago Catalan independence movement declares a general strike in Barcelona https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50098268 #5yrsago AOC to endorse Bernie Sanders today https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-bernie-sanders-scored-a-coup-and-won-the-backing-of-ocasio-cortez-and-omar/2019/10/16/53beca18-f020-11e9-8693-f487e46784aa_story.html #1yrago Uncle Sam paid to develop a cancer drug and now one guy will get to charge whatever he wants for it https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/19/solid-tumors/#t-cell-receptors ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Upcoming appearances * SOSS Fusion (Atlanta), Oct 22 https://sossfusion2024.sched.com/speaker/cory_doctorow.1qm5qfgn * Eagle Eye Books (Decatur), Oct 23 https://eagleeyebooks.com/event/2024-10-23/cory-doctorow * TusCon (Tucson), Nov 8-10 https://tusconscificon.com/ * International Cooperative Alliance (New Delhi), Nov 24 https://icanewdelhi2024.coop/welcome/pages/Programme * ISSA-LA Holiday Celebration keynote (Los Angeles), Dec 18 https://issala.org/event/issa-la-december-18-dinner-meeting/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Recent appearances * Speciale intervista a Cory Doctorow (Digitalia) https://digitalia.fm/744/ * Was There Ever An Old, Good Internet? (David Graeber Institute) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6Jlxx5TboE * Go Fact Yourself https://maximumfun.org/episodes/go-fact-yourself/ep-158-aida-rodriguez-cory-doctorow/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Latest books * 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 * Picks and Shovels: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books, February 2025 * Unauthorized Bread: a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2025 ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Colophon Today's top sources: Currently writing: * Enshittification: a nonfiction book about platform decay for Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Today's progress: 781 words (67138 words total). * 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 FEB 2025 Latest podcast: Spill, part one (a Little Brother story) https://craphound.com/littlebrother/2024/10/06/spill-part-one-a-little-brother-story/ This work - excluding any serialized fiction - is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? How to get Pluralistic: Blog (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): Pluralistic.net Newsletter (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://pluralistic.net/plura-list Mastodon (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic Medium (no ads, paywalled): https://doctorow.medium.com/ Twitter (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://twitter.com/doctorow Tumblr (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/tagged/pluralistic "*When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla*" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: OpenPGP_0x9026DBBE1FC237AF.asc Type: application/pgp-keys Size: 3650 bytes Desc: OpenPGP public key URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: OpenPGP_signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 203 bytes Desc: OpenPGP digital signature URL: From doctorow at craphound.com Mon Oct 21 10:37:14 2024 From: doctorow at craphound.com (Cory Doctorow) Date: Mon, 21 Oct 2024 07:37:14 -0700 Subject: [Plura-list] Retiring the US debt would retire the US dollar Message-ID: Read today's issue online at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/21/we-can-have-nice-things/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ This Wednesday (October 23) at 7PM, I'll be in Decatur, Georgia, presenting my novel *The Bezzle* at Eagle Eye Books: https://eagleeyebooks.com/event/2024-10-23/cory-doctorow ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ Today's links * Retiring the US debt would retire the US dollar: We don't tax billionaires to fight the national debt. We tax billionaires to fight BILLIONAIRES. * Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. * This day in history: 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019, 2023 * Upcoming appearances: Where to find me. * Recent appearances: Where I've been. * 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. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Retiring the US debt would retire the US dollar One of the most consequential series of investigative journalism of this decade was the *Propublica* series that Jesse Eisinger helmed, in which Eisinger and colleagues analyzed a trove of leaked IRS tax returns for the richest people in America: https://www.propublica.org/series/the-secret-irs-files The Secret IRS Files revealed the fact that many of America's oligarchs pay no tax at all. Some of them even get subsidies intended for poor families, like Jeff Bezos, whose tax affairs are so scammy that he was able to claim to be among the working poor and receive a federal Child Tax Credit, a $4,000 gift from the American public to one of the richest men who ever lived: https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax As important as the numbers revealed by the Secret IRS Files were, I found the *explanations* even more interesting. The 99.9999% of us who never make contact with the secretive elite wealth management and tax cheating industry know, in the abstract, that there's *something* scammy going on in those esoteric cults of wealth accumulation, but we're pretty vague on the details. When I pondered the "tax loopholes" that the rich were exploiting, I pictured, you know, long lists of equations salted with Greek symbols, completely beyond my ken. But when Propublica's series laid these secret tactics out, I learned that they were incredibly *stupid* ruses, tricks so thin that the only way they could *possibly* fool the IRS is if the IRS just didn't give a shit (and they truly didn't - after decades of cuts and attacks, the IRS was far more likely to audit a family earning less than $30k/year than a billionaire). This has become a somewhat familiar experience. If you read the Panama Papers, the Paradise Papers, Luxleaks, Swissleaks, or any of the other spectacular leaks from the oligarch-industrial complex, you'll have seen the same thing: the rich employ the most tissue-thin ruses, and the tax authorities gobble them up. It's like the tax collectors don't *want* to fight with these ultrawealthy monsters whose net worth is larger than most nations, and merely require *some* excuse to allow them to cheat, anything they can scribble in the box explaining why they are worth billions and paying little, or nothing, or even entitled to free public money from programs intended to lift hungry children out of poverty. It was this experience that fueled my interest in forensic accounting, which led to my bestselling techno-crime-thriller series starring the two-fisted, scambusting forensic accountant Martin Hench, who made his debut in 2022's *Red Team Blues*: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865847/red-team-blues The double outrage of finding out how badly the powerful are ripping off the rest of us, and how stupid and transparent their accounting tricks are, is at the center of *Chokepoint Capitalism*, the book about how tech and entertainment companies steal from creative workers (and how to stop them) that Rebecca Giblin and I co-authored, which also came out in 2022: https://chokepointcapitalism.com/ Now that I've written four novels and a nonfiction book about finance scams, I think I can safely call myself a oligarch ripoff hobbyist. I find this stuff endlessly fascinating, enraging, and, most importantly, energizing. So naturally, when PJ Vogt devoted two episodes of his excellent Search Engine podcast to the subject last week, I gobbled them up: https://www.searchengine.show/listen/search-engine-1/why-is-it-so-hard-to-tax-billionaires-part-1 I love the way Vogt unpacks complex subjects. Maybe you've had the experience of following a commentator and admiring their knowledge of subjects you're unfamiliar with, only have them cover something *you're* an expert in and find them making a bunch of errors (this is basically the experience of using an LLM, which can give you authoritative seeming answers when the subject is one you're unfamiliar with, but which reveals itself to be a Bullshit Machine as soon as you ask it about something whose lore you know backwards and forwards). Well, Vogt has covered many subjects that I am an expert in, and I had the *opposite* experience, finding that even when he covers my own specialist topics, I still learn something. I don't always agree with him, but always find those disagreements productive in that they make me clarify my own interests. (Full disclosure: I was one of Vogt's experts on his previous podcast, Reply All, talking about the inkjet printerization of everything:) https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/brho54 Vogt's series on taxing billionaires was no exception. His interview subjects (including Eisinger) were very good, and he got into a lot of great detail on the leaker himself, Charles Littlejohn, who plead guilty and was sentenced to five years: https://jacobin.com/2023/10/charles-littlejohn-irs-whistleblower-pro-publica-tax-evasion-prosecution Vogt also delved into the history of the federal income tax, how it was sold to the American public, and a rather hilarious story of Republican Congressional gamesmanship that backfired spectacularly. I'd never encountered this stuff before and *boy* was it interesting. But then Vogt got into the nature of taxation, and its relationship to the federal debt, another subject I've written about extensively, and that's where one of those productive disagreements emerged. Yesterday, I set out to write him a brief note unpacking this objection and ended up writing a giant essay (sorry, PJ!), and this morning I found myself still thinking about it. So I thought, why not clean up the email a little and publish it here? As much as I enjoyed these episodes, I took serious exception to one - fairly important! - aspect of your analysis: the relationship of taxes to the national debt. There's two ways of approaching this question, which I think of as akin to classical vs quantum physics. In the orthodox, classical telling, the government taxes us to pay for programs. This is crudely true at 10,000 feet and as a rule of thumb, it's fine in many cases. But on the ground - at the quantum level, in this analogy - the *opposite* is actually going on. There is only one source of US dollars: the US Treasury (you can try and make your own dollars, but they'll put you in prison for a long-ass time if they catch you.). If dollars can *only* originate with the US government, then it follows that: a) The US government doesn't need our taxes to get US dollars (for the same reason Apple doesn't need us to redeem our iTunes cards to get more iTunes gift codes); b) All the dollars in circulation *start* with spending by the US government (taxes can't be paid until dollars are first spent by their issuer, the US government); and c) That spending *must* happen *before* anyone has been taxed, because the way dollars enter circulation is through spending. You've probably heard people say, "Government spending isn't like household spending." That is obviously true: households are currency *users* while governments are currency *issuers*. But the implications of this are very interesting. First, the total dollars in circulation are: a) All the dollars the government has ever spent into existence funding programs, transferring to the states, and paying its own employees, *minus* b) All the dollars that the government has taxed away from us, and subsequently annihilated. (Because governments spend money into existence and tax money out of existence.) The net of dollars the government spends in a given year minus the dollars the government taxes out of existence that year is called "the national deficit." The total of all those national deficits is called "the national debt." All the dollars in circulation today are the result of this national debt. If the US government didn't have a debt, there would be no dollars in circulation. The only way to eliminate the national debt is to tax *every dollar in circulation* out of existence. Because the national debt is "all the dollars the government has ever spent," minus "all the dollars the government has ever taxed." In accounting terms, "The US deficit is the public's credit." When billionaires like Warren Buffet tell Jesse Eisinger that he doesn't pay tax because "he thinks his money is better spent on charitable works rather than contributing to an insignificant reduction of the deficit," he is, at best, technically wrong about why we tax, and at worst, he's telling a self-serving lie. The US government doesn't need to eliminate its debt. Doing so would be catastrophic. "Retiring the US debt" is the same thing as "retiring the US dollar." So if the USG isn't taxing to retire its debts, why *does* it tax? Because when the USG - or any other currency issuer - creates a token, that token is, on its face, useless. If I offered to sell you some "Corycoins," you would quite rightly say that Corycoins have no value and thus you don't need any of them. For a token to be liquid - for it to be redeemable for valuable things, like labor, goods and services - there needs to be something that someone desires that can be purchased with that token. Remember when Disney issued "Disney dollars" that you could only spend at Disney theme parks? They traded more or less at face value, even outside of Disney parks, because everyone knew someone who was planning a Disney vacation and could make use of those Disney tokens. But if you go down to a local carny and play skeeball and win a fistful of tickets, you'll find it hard to trade those with anyone outside of the skeeball counter, especially once you leave the carny. There's two reasons for this: 1) The things you can get at the skeeball counter are pretty crappy so most people don't desire them; and ' 2) Most people aren't planning on visiting the carny, so there's no way for them to redeem the skeeball tickets even if they want the stuff behind the counter (this is also why it's hard to sell your Iranian rials if you bring them back to the US - there's not much you can buy in Iran, and even someone you wanted to buy something there, it's really hard for US citizens to get to Iran). But when a sovereign currency issuer - one with the power of the law behind it - demands a tax denominated in its own currency, they create demand for that token. *Everyone* desires USD because almost everyone in the USA has to pay taxes in USD to the government every year, or they will go to prison. That fact is why there is such a liquid market for USD. Far more people want USD to pay their taxes than will ever want Disney dollars to spend on Dole Whips, and even if you *are* hoping to buy a Dole Whip in Fantasyland, that desire is far less important to you than your desire not to go to prison for dodging your taxes. Even if you're not paying taxes, you know someone who is. The underlying liquidity of the USD is inextricably tied to taxation, and that's the first reason we tax. By issuing a token - the USD - and then laying on a tax that can *only* be paid in that token (you cannot pay federal income tax in anything except USD - not crypto, not euros, not rials - *only* USD), the US government creates demand for that token. And because the US government is the only source of dollars, the US government can purchase anything that is within its sovereign territory. Anything denominated in US dollars is available to the US government: the labor of every US-residing person, the land and resources in US territory, and the goods produced within the US borders. The US doesn't need to tax us to buy these things (remember, it makes new money by typing numbers into a spreadsheet at the Federal Reserve). But it *does* tax us, and if the taxes it levies don't equal the spending it's making, it also sells us T-bills to make up the shortfall. So the US government kinda *acts* like classical physics are true, that is, like it is a household and thus a currency user, and not a currency issuer. If it spends more than it taxes, it "borrows" (issues T-bills) to make up the difference. Why does it do this? To fight inflation. The US government has no monetary constraints, it can make as many dollars as it cares to (by typing numbers into a spreadsheet). But the US government is *fiscally* constrained, because it can only buy things that are denominated in US dollars (this is why it's such a big deal that global oil is priced in USD - it means the US government can buy oil from *anywhere*, not only the USA, just by typing numbers into a spreadsheet). The supply of dollars is infinite, but the supply of labor and goods denominated in US dollars is finite, and, what's more, the people inside the USA expect to use that labor and goods for their own needs. If the US government issues so many dollars that it can outbid every private construction company for the labor of electricians, bricklayers, crane drivers, etc, and puts them all to work building federal buildings, there will be no private construction. Indeed, every time the US government bids against the private sector for anything - labor, resources, land, finished goods - the price of that thing goes up. That's one way to get inflation (and it's why inflation hawks are so horny for slashing government spending - to get government bidders out of the auction for goods, services and labor). But while the supply of goods for sale in US dollars is finite, it's not *fixed*. If the US government takes away some of the private sector's productive capacity in order to build interstates, train skilled professionals, treat sick people so they can go to work (or at least not burden their working-age relations), etc, then the supply of goods and services denominated in USD goes up, and that makes *more* fiscal space, meaning the government and the private sector can both consume more of those goods and services and still not bid against one another, thus creating no inflationary pressure. Thus, taxes create liquidity for US dollars, but they do something else that's really important: they reduce the spending power of the private sector. If the US only ever spent money into existence and never taxed it out of existence, *that* would create incredible inflation, because the supply of dollars would go up and up and up, while the supply of goods and services you could buy with dollars would grow much more slowly, because the US government wouldn't have the looming threat of taxes with which to coerce us into doing the work to build highways, care for the sick, or teach people how to be doctors, engineers, etc. Taxes coercively reduce the purchasing power of the private sector (they're a stick). T-bills do the same thing, but voluntarily (they the carrot). A T-bill is a bargain offered by the US government: "Voluntarily park your money instead of spending it. That will create fiscal space for us to buy things without bidding against you, because it removes your money from circulation temporarily. That means we, the US government, can buy more stuff and use it to increase the amount of goods and services you can buy with your money when the bond matures, while keeping the supply of dollars and the supply of dollar-denominated stuff in rough equilibrium." So a bond isn't a *debt* - it's more like a savings account. When you move money from your checking to your savings, you reduce its liquidity, meaning the bank can treat it as a reserve without worrying quite so much about you spending it. In exchange, the bank gives you some interest, as a carrot. I know, I know, this is a big-ass wall of text. Congrats if you made it this far! But here's the upshot. We should tax billionaires, because it will reduce their economic power and thus their political power. But we *absolutely* don't need to tax billionaires to have nice things. For example: the US government could hire *every single unemployed person* without creating inflationary pressure on wages, because inflation only happens when the US government tries to buy something that the private sector is also trying to buy, bidding up the price. To be "unemployed" is to have labor that the private sector isn't trying to buy. They're synonyms. By definition, the feds could put every unemployed person to work (say, training one another to be teachers, construction workers, etc - and then going out and taking care of the sick, addressing the housing crisis, etc etc) without buying any labor that the private sector is also trying to buy. What's even more true than this is that our taxes are *not* going to reduce the national debt. That guest you had who said, "Even if we tax billionaires, we will never pay off the national debt,"" was 100% right, because the national debt equals all the money in circulation. Which is why that guest was also very, very wrong when she said, "We will have to tax normal people too in order to pay off the debt." We don't have to pay off the debt. We shouldn't pay off the debt. We *can't* pay off the debt. Paying off the debt is another way of saying "eliminating the dollar." Taxation isn't a way for the government to pay for things. Taxation is a way to create demand for US dollars, to convince people to sell goods and services to the US government, and to constrain private sector spending, which creates fiscal space for the US government to buy goods and services without bidding up their prices. And in a "classical physics" sense, all of the preceding is kinda a way of saying, "Taxes pay for government spending." As a rough approximation, you can think of taxes like this and generally not get into trouble. But when you start to make *policy* - when you contemplate when, whether, and how much to tax billionaires - you leave behind the crude, high-level approximation and descend into the nitty-gritty world of things as they *are*, and you need to jettison the convenience of the easy-to-grasp approximation. If you're interested in learning more about this, you can tune into this TED Talk by Stephanie Kelton, formerly advisor to the Senate Budget Committee chair, now back teaching and researching econ at University of Missouri at Kansas City: https://www.ted.com/talks/stephanie_kelton_the_big_myth_of_government_deficits?subtitle=en Stephanie has written a great book about this, *The Deficit Myth*: https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/14/everybody-poops/#deficit-myth There's a really good feature length doc about it too, called "Finding the Money": https://findingmoneyfilm.com/ If you'd like to read more of my own work on this, here's a column I wrote about the nature of currency in light of Web3, crypto, etc: https://locusmag.com/2022/09/cory-doctorow-moneylike/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Hey look at this * Some People Just Want to Watch the Internet Burn https://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=11220 ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? This day in history #20yrsago Stephen King finishes the Gunslinger books https://memex.craphound.com/2004/10/20/stephen-king-finishes-the-gunslinger-books/ #20yrsago Neal Stephenson?s Slashdot interview https://slashdot.org/story/04/10/20/1518217/neal-stephenson-responds-with-wit-and-humor #15yrsago Yahoo hires lap-dancers to entertain at its open, inclusive Hack Day event https://simonwillison.net/2009/Oct/19/hackday/ #15yrsago 86-year-old WWII vet on gay marriage: ?What do you think I fought for in Omaha Beach?? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrEbJBFWIPk #10yrsago Mercilessly pricking the bubbles of AI, Big Data, machine learning https://spectrum.ieee.org/machinelearning-maestro-michael-jordan-on-the-delusions-of-big-data-and-other-huge-engineering-efforts #10yrsago American businesses devour themselves to enrich the 1% https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/10/goldman-makes-it-official-that-the-stock-market-is-manipulated-buybacks-drive-valuations.html #10yrsago WATCH: top Scientologists heaping abuse on apostate https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG70fhg0wL4 #10yrsago American cities, ranked by conservatism https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/88528 #10yrsago LISTEN: Run DMC meets Danny Elfman (spooky!) https://soundcloud.com/dj_bc/the-king-of-halloween-run-dmc #5yrsago Why we should ban facial recognition technology everywhere https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/17/opinion/facial-recognition-ban.html #5yrsago The Catalan independence movement is being coordinated by an app designed for revolutions https://www.wired.com/story/barcelonia-riots-catalonia-protests-news/ #5yrsago Yahoo Groups archivists despair as Verizon blocks their preservation efforts ahead of shutdown https://web.archive.org/web/20141018140923/https://modsandmembersblog.wordpress.com/for-the-press-2/ #5yrsago Griefer terrorizes baby by taking over their Nest babycam?again https://www.siliconvalley.com/2019/10/18/the-voice-from-our-nest-camera-threatened-to-steal-our-baby/ #5yrsago It's dismayingly easy to make an app that turns a smart-speaker into a password-stealing listening device and sneak it past the manufacturer's security checks https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/10/alexa-and-google-home-abused-to-eavesdrop-and-phish-passwords/ #5yrsago A shrewd guess about the Haunted Mansion's mysterious Squeaky Door Ghost https://longforgottenhauntedmansion.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-squeaky-door-ghost.html #5yrsago Rep Katie Porter: an Elizabeth Warren protege and single mom who destroys bumbling, mediocre rich guys in Congressional hearings https://newrepublic.com/article/155268/house-representative-katie-porter-schools-ben-carson-orea-jamie-dimon #5yrsago Haunted Mansion/Ikea mashup tee https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/4196890-haunted-mansion-ikea-instructions #1yrago The internet's original sin https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/21/the-internets-original-sin/ #1yrago Amazon?s bestselling ?bitter lemon? energy drink was bottled delivery driver piss https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/20/release-energy/#the-bitterest-lemon ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Upcoming appearances * SOSS Fusion (Atlanta), Oct 22 https://sossfusion2024.sched.com/speaker/cory_doctorow.1qm5qfgn * Eagle Eye Books (Decatur), Oct 23 https://eagleeyebooks.com/event/2024-10-23/cory-doctorow * TusCon (Tucson), Nov 8-10 https://tusconscificon.com/ * International Cooperative Alliance (New Delhi), Nov 24 https://icanewdelhi2024.coop/welcome/pages/Programme * ISSA-LA Holiday Celebration keynote (Los Angeles), Dec 18 https://issala.org/event/issa-la-december-18-dinner-meeting/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Recent appearances * Maximum Iceland Scenario - Data Caps, 3rd Party Android Stores, Nuclear Amazon (This Week in Tech) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5MkCwktKz0 * Speciale intervista a Cory Doctorow (Digitalia) https://digitalia.fm/744/ * Was There Ever An Old, Good Internet? (David Graeber Institute) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6Jlxx5TboE ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Latest books * 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 * Picks and Shovels: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books, February 2025 * Unauthorized Bread: a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2025 ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Colophon Today's top sources: Currently writing: * Enshittification: a nonfiction book about platform decay for Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Today's progress: words ( words total). * 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 FEB 2025 Latest podcast: Spill, part one (a Little Brother story) https://craphound.com/littlebrother/2024/10/06/spill-part-one-a-little-brother-story/ This work - excluding any serialized fiction - is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? How to get Pluralistic: Blog (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): Pluralistic.net Newsletter (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://pluralistic.net/plura-list Mastodon (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic Medium (no ads, paywalled): https://doctorow.medium.com/ Twitter (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://twitter.com/doctorow Tumblr (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/tagged/pluralistic "*When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla*" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla From doctorow at craphound.com Wed Oct 23 11:04:04 2024 From: doctorow at craphound.com (Cory Doctorow) Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2024 11:04:04 -0400 Subject: [Plura-list] Scientific American endorses Harris Message-ID: Read today's issue online at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/22/eisegesis/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ TONIGHT (October 23) at 7PM, I'll be in Decatur, Georgia, presenting my novel *The Bezzle* at Eagle Eye Books: https://eagleeyebooks.com/event/2024-10-23/cory-doctorow ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ Today's links * Scientific American endorses Harris: "Conservatism never fails, it is only failed." * Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. * This day in history: 2009, 2014, 2019, 2023 * Upcoming appearances: Where to find me. * Recent appearances: Where I've been. * 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. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ?? Scientific American endorses Harris If Trump's norm-breaking is a threat to democracy (and it is), what should Democrats do? Will breaking norms to defeat norms only accelerate the collapse of norms, or do we fight fire with fire, breaking norms to resist the slide into tyranny? Writing for *The American Prospect*, Rick Perlstein writes how "every time the forces of democracy broke a reactionary deadlock, they did it by breaking some norm that stood in the way": https://prospect.org/politics/2024-10-23-science-is-political/ Take the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery, and the Reconstruction period that followed it. As Jefferson Cowie discusses, the 13th only passed because the slave states were excluded from its ratification, and even then, it barely squeaked over the line. The Congress that passed reconstruction laws that "radically reconstructed [slave states] via military subjugation" first ejected all the representatives of those states: https://newrepublic.com/article/182383/defend-liberalism-lets-fight-democracy-first The New Deal only exists because FDR was on the verge of packing the Supreme Court, and, under this threat, SCOTUS stopped ruling against FDR's plans: https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/20/judicial-equilibria/#pack-the-court The passage of progressive laws - "the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Medicare, and Medicaid" - are all thanks to JFK's gambit of packing the House Rules Committee, ending the obstructionist GOP members use of the committee to kill anything that would protect or expand America's already fragile social safety net. As Perlstein writes, "A willingness to judiciously break norms in a civic emergency can be a sign of a healthy and valorous democratic resistance." And yet...the Democratic establishment remains violently allergic to norm-breaking. Perlstein recalls the 2018 book *How Democracies Die*, much beloved of party elites and Obama himself, which argued that norms are the bedrock of democracy, and so the pro-democratic forces undermine their own causes when they fight reactionary norm-breaking with their own. The tactic of bringing a norm to a gun-fight has been a disaster for democracy. Trump wasn't the first norm-shattering Republican - think of GWB and his pals stealing the 2000 election, or Mitch McConnell stealing a Supreme Court seat for Gorsuch - but Trump's assault on norms is constant, brazen and unapologetic. Progressives need to do more than weep on the sidelines and demand that Republicans play fair. The Democratic establishment's response is to toe every line, seeking to attract "moderate conservatives" who love institutions more than they love tax giveaways to billionaires. This is a very small constituency, nowhere near big enough to deliver the legislative majorities, let alone the White House. As Perlstein says, Obama very publicly rejected calls to be "too liberal" and tiptoed around anti-racist policy, in a bid to prevent a "racist backlash" (Obama discussed race in public less than any other president since the 1950s). This was a hopeless, ridiculous own-goal: Perlstein points out that even before Obama was inaugurated, there were more than 100 Facebook groups calling for his impeachment. The racist backlash was inevitable had nothing to do with Obama's policies. The racist backlash was driven by Obama's *race*. Luckily, *some* institutions are getting over their discomfort with norm-breaking and standing up for democracy. *Scientific American* the 179 year-old bedrock of American scientific publication, has endorsed Harris for President, only the second such endorsement in its long history: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/vote-for-kamala-harris-to-support-science-health-and-the-environment/ Predictably, this has provoked howls of outrage from Republicans and a debate within the scientific community. Science is supposed to be *apolitical*, right? Wrong. The conservative viewpoint, grounded in discomfort with ambiguity ("there are only two genders," etc) is antithetical to the scientific viewpoint. Remember the early stages of the covid pandemic, when science's understanding of the virus changed from moment to moment? Major, urgent recommendations (not masking, disinfecting groceries) were swiftly overturned. This is how science is *supposed* to work: a hypothesis can only be grounded in the evidence you have in hand, and as new evidence comes in that changes the picture, you should also change your mind. Conservatives *hated* this. They claimed that scientists were "flip-flopping" and therefore "didn't know anything." Many concluded that the whole covid thing was a stitch-up, a bid to control us by keeping us off-balance with ever-changing advice and therefore afraid and vulnerable. This never ended: just look at all the weirdos in the comments of this video of my talk at last summer's Def Con who are *absolutely freaking out* about the fact that I wore a mask in an enclosed space with 5,000 people from all over the world in it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EmstuO0Em8 This intolerance for following the evidence is a fixture in conservative science denialism. How many times have you heard your racist Facebook uncle grouse about hos "scientists used to say the world was getting colder, now they say it's getting hotter, what the hell do they know?" Perlstein points to other examples of this. For example, in the 1980s, conservatives insisted that the answer to the AIDS crisis was to "just stop having 'illicit sex,'" a prescription that was grounded in a denial of AIDS science, because scientists used to say that it was a gay disease, then they said you could get it from IV drug use, or tainted blood, or from straight sex. How could you trust scientists when they can't even make up their minds? https://www.newspapers.com/image/379364219/?terms=babies&match=1 There certainly are conservative scientists. But the right has a "fundamentally therapeutic discourse...conservatism never fails, it is only failed." That puts science and conservativism in a very awkward dance with one another. Sometimes, science wins. Continuing in his history of the AIDS crisis, Perlstein talks about the transformation of Reagan's Surgeon General, C Everett Koop. Koop was an arch-conservative's arch-conservative. He was a hard-right evangelical who had "once suggested homosexuals were sedulously recruiting boys into their cult to help them take over America once they came of voting age." He'd also called abortion "the slide to Auschwitz" - which was weird, because he'd also opined that the "Jews had it coming for refusing to accept Jesus Christ." You'd expect Koop to have continued the Reagan administration's de facto AIDS policy ("queers deserve to die"), but that's not what happened. After considering the evidence, Koop *mailed a leaflet to every home in the USA advocating for condom use.* Koop was already getting started. His harm-reduction advocacy made him a national hero, so Reagan couldn't fire him. A Reagan advisor named Gary Bauer teamed up with Dinesh D'Souza on a mission to get Koop back on track. They got him a new assignment: investigate the supposed psychological harms of abortion, which should be a slam-dunk for old Doc Auschwitz. Instead, Koop published official findings - from the Reagan White House - that there was no evidence for these harms, and which advised women with an AIDS diagnosis to consider abortion. So sometimes, science can triumph over conservativism. But it's far more common for conservativism to trump science. The most common form of this is "eisegesis," where someone looks at a "pile of data in order to find confirmation in it of what they already 'know' to be true." Think of those anti-mask weirdos who cling to three studies that "prove" masks don't work. Or the climate deniers who have 350 studies "proving" climate change isn't real. Eisegesis proves ivermectin works, that vaccinations are linked to autism, and that water fluoridation is a Communist plot. So long as you confine yourself to considering evidence that confirms your beliefs, you can prove anything. Respecting norms is a good rule of thumb, but it's a lousy rule. The politicization of science starts with the right's intolerance for ambiguity - not *Scientific American*'s Harris endorsement. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ?? Hey look at this * The Secretive Dynasty That Controls the Boar?s Head Brand https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/13/business/boars-head-owners-listeria-outbreak.html (h/t Kottke) * Intuit asked us to delete part of this Decoder episode. We declined. https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/21/24273820/intuit-ceo-sasan-goodarzi-turbotax-irs-quickbooks-ai-software-decoder-interview (h/t Garbage Day) * And So It Goes https://gametek.substack.com/p/and-so-it-goes (h/t Metafilter) ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ?? This day in history #15yrsago 555 California security guards in San Fran threaten to punch sidewalk photographer, break his f*cking camera https://web.archive.org/web/20091025233149/http://calibersf.com/2009/10/23/i-will-break-your-fucking-camera/ #15yrsago Barclay?s terrible bank-security https://web.archive.org/web/20091028154706/http://www.links.org/?p=772 #15yrago Spectator throws out public safety, embraces sensationalism and AIDS denialism https://www.badscience.net/2009/10/aids-denialism-at-the-spectator/ #15yrsago Booklife: a guide to a sane, productive writerly life https://memex.craphound.com/2009/10/22/booklife-a-guide-to-a-sane-productive-writerly-life/ #10yrsago Carl Hiaasen?s ?Skink No Surrender? https://memex.craphound.com/2014/10/22/carl-hiaasens-skink-no-surrender/ #10yrsago Thomas Piketty?s Capital in the 21st Century, in 20 minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKsHhXwqDqM #10yrsago The dirty secret of Google?s self-driving cars https://slate.com/technology/2014/10/google-self-driving-car-it-may-never-actually-happen.html #5yrsago Educational spyware company to school boards: hire us to spy on your kids and we?ll help you sabotage teachers? strikes https://qz.com/1318758/schools-are-using-ai-to-track-what-students-write-on-their-computers #5yrsago New York Times abruptly eliminates its ?director of information security? position: ?there is no need for a dedicated focus on newsroom and journalistic security? https://twitter.com/runasand/status/1186775481615605760 #5yrsago The wonderful You Must Remember This podcast returns to tell the secret history of Disney?s most racist movie, Song of the South http://www.youmustrememberthispodcast.com/episodes/2019/10/21/six-degrees-of-song-of-the-south-episode-1-disneys-most-controversial-film #5yrsago A visual history of Soviet anti-religious artwork https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2019/oct/23/down-with-god-how-the-soviet-union-took-on-religion-in-pictures #5yrsago Bernie supporters are the most diverse of any Democratic presidential contender https://prospect.org/politics/aoc-endorsement-queens-rally-sanders-movement/ #5yrsago When the HR department is a robotic phrenologist: ?face-scanning algorithm? gains popularity as a job-applicant screener https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/10/22/ai-hiring-face-scanning-algorithm-increasingly-decides-whether-you-deserve-job/ #5yrsago Japanese robot hotel chain ignored repeated warnings that its in-room ?bed-facing? robots could be turned into spy devices https://web.archive.org/web/20191023135234/https://www.tokyoreporter.com/business/robot-hotel-operator-announces-modification-to-prevent-hacks-by-guests/ #5yrsago NJ school district bans indebted students from prom and field trips, refuses offer to pay off lunch debt https://www.inquirer.com/education/school-lunch-shaming-cherry-hill-tuna-prom-20191018.html #5yrsago Hospital staff hang a banner celebrating the transfer of their ?mischievous tyrant? boss < a href="https://twitter.com/OmoGbajaBiamila/status/1184715636406128640">https://twitter.com/OmoGbajaBiamila/status/1184715636406128640 #5yrsago Ernst and Young subjected women employees to ?training? about keeping the company?s men happy https://www.huffpost.com/entry/women-ernst-young-how-to-dress-act-around-men_n_5da721eee4b002e33e78606a #5yrsago The tactical evolution of #HongKongProtests: bolted-down barricades and calling out businesses https://memex.craphound.com/2019/10/22/the-tactical-evolution-of-hongkongprotests-bolted-down-barricades-and-calling-out-businesses/ #5yrsago Equifax used ?admin/admin? as login and pass for an unencrypted server full of your personal data https://finance.yahoo.com/news/equifax-password-username-admin-lawsuit-201118316.html #5yrsago Margaret Atwood?s ?The Testaments?: a long-awaited Handmaid?s Tale sequel fulfills its promise https://memex.craphound.com/2019/10/22/margaret-atwoods-the-testaments-a-long-awaited-handmaids-tale-sequel-fulfills-its-promise/ #1yrago In defense of bureaucratic competence https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/23/getting-stuff-done/#praxis Upcoming appearances (permalink) * Eagle Eye Books (Decatur), Oct 23 https://eagleeyebooks.com/event/2024-10-23/cory-doctorow * TusCon (Tucson), Nov 8-10 https://tusconscificon.com/ * International Cooperative Alliance (New Delhi), Nov 24 https://icanewdelhi2024.coop/welcome/pages/Programme * ISSA-LA Holiday Celebration keynote (Los Angeles), Dec 18 https://issala.org/event/issa-la-december-18-dinner-meeting/ * Eagle Eye Books (Decatur), Oct 23 https://eagleeyebooks.com/event/2024-10-23/cory-doctorow * TusCon (Tucson), Nov 8-10 https://tusconscificon.com/ * International Cooperative Alliance (New Delhi), Nov 24 https://icanewdelhi2024.coop/welcome/pages/Programme * ISSA-LA Holiday Celebration keynote (Los Angeles), Dec 18 https://issala.org/event/issa-la-december-18-dinner-meeting/ Recent appearances (permalink) * Maximum Iceland Scenario - Data Caps, 3rd Party Android Stores, Nuclear Amazon (This Week in Tech) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5MkCwktKz0 * Speciale intervista a Cory Doctorow (Digitalia) https://digitalia.fm/744/ * Was There Ever An Old, Good Internet? (David Graeber Institute) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6Jlxx5TboE 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 middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2025 Colophon (permalink) Today's top sources: Currently writing: * Enshittification: a nonfiction book about platform decay for Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Today's progress: 764 words (69088 words total). * 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 FEB 2025 Latest podcast: Spill, part one (a Little Brother story) https://craphound.com/littlebrother/2024/10/06/spill-part-one-a-little-brother-story/ This work - excluding any serialized fiction - is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution. How to get Pluralistic: Blog (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): Pluralistic.net Newsletter (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://pluralistic.net/plura-list Mastodon (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic Medium (no ads, paywalled): https://doctorow.medium.com/ Twitter (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://twitter.com/doctorow Tumblr (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/tagged/pluralistic "When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: OpenPGP_0x9026DBBE1FC237AF.asc Type: application/pgp-keys Size: 3650 bytes Desc: OpenPGP public key URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: OpenPGP_signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 203 bytes Desc: OpenPGP digital signature URL: From doctorow at craphound.com Thu Oct 24 05:30:02 2024 From: doctorow at craphound.com (Cory Doctorow) Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2024 05:30:02 -0400 Subject: [Plura-list] The housing crisis considered as an income crisis Message-ID: Read today's issue online at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/24/i-dream-of-gini/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ I'll be in Tucson, AZ from November 8-10: I'm the Guest of Honor at the Tuscon science fiction convention: https://tusconscificon.com/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ Today's links * The housing crisis considered as an income crisis: "The wage is too damned low" vs "The rent is too damned high." * Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. * This day in history: 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019, 2023 * Upcoming appearances: Where to find me. * Recent appearances: Where I've been. * 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. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? The housing crisis considered as an income crisis A paradox: in 1970, everyday Americans found it relatively easy to afford a house, and the average American house cost 5.9x the average American income. In 2024, Americans find it nearly impossible to afford a house, and the average American house costs...5.9x the average American income. Feels like a puzzler, right? Can it really be true that the average American house is as affordable to the average American earner as it was in 1970? It *is* true, as you can see from Blair Fix's latest open access research report, "The American Housing Crisis: A Theft, Not a Shortage": https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2024/10/23/the-american-housing-crisis-a-theft-not-a-shortage/ Fix also points out that is even more true of rents than it is of house prices. The ratio of rent to average income has actually *fallen* slightly since 1970. Rents are also, in some mathematical sense, "affordable." Now, those of you who are well-versed in statistical card-palming will likely have a pretty good idea of the statistical artifact at the root of this paradox: the word "average." If you remember your seventh grade math, you'll recall that "average" has more than one meaning. Sure, there's the most common one: add several values together, then divide the total by the number of values you added. For example, a nonzero number of people have one or zero arms, so the average human has slightly fewer than two arms. That average is called the "mean." The mean US wage is pretty robust: $73,242/year: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/A792RC0Q052SBEA/1000 But the majority of Americans are *not* earning anything like $73k/year. Since the Reagan years, the number of Americans living in poverty and extreme poverty has climbed and climbed. And while their declining income sure drags down that average, it's dragged way, way, *way* up by another group of Americans - the ultra-rich. You see, as Fix writes, back in the Reagan years, America initiated an experiment in redistribution. Reagan enacted policies that moved most of the nation's wealth from the great majority of working people to a tiny minority of people who ended up owning pretty much everything. Throw *their* income into the mix, and the average American's income is sufficient to finance the average American home, with plenty to spare. In other words, this isn't an "average human has fewer than two arms" situation, it's more like a "Spiders Georg" situation. Spiders Georg is a Tumblr meme about a guy who eats 10,000 spiders every day and is thus single-handedly responsible for the (false) statistic that the average human eats two spiders a week: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiders_Georg The American rich - Reagan's progeny - are the Spiders Georg of house prices. By hoarding the great mass of American national wealth, they create a statistical mirage of affordable housing. Now, that's interesting, but where Fix goes next with this is even more fascinating. If the average price of housing (relative to average income) has stayed fixed since 1970, then it follows that the price of housing isn't being driven up by a problem with supply. Rather, these numbers suggest that America has enough housing, it's just that (most) Americans don't have enough *money*. If that's true - and I have a couple of quibbles, which I'll get to in a sec - then the most common prescription for solving American housing (building more of it) is somewhat beside the point. For Fix, using public funds to subsidize cheaper housing is like using public funds to pay for food stamps for working people whose wages are too low to keep them from starving. Sure, we should do that: no one should be without a home and no one should be hungry. But if working people can't afford shelter and food, then we have a *wage* problem, not a *supply* problem. Fix - as ever - has a well-thought through, painstakingly documented "sources and methods" page to back up his conclusions: https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2024/10/23/the-american-housing-crisis-a-theft-not-a-shortage/#sources-and-methods And while acknowledges that reversing the mass transfer of wealth from working people to their bosses (and their bosses' idle offspring) is a big lift, he rightly wants to keep the question of wages (rather than housing supply) front and center in our debate about why so many of us are finding it hard to keep a a roof over our heads. We need progressive taxation, higher minimum wages, protection from medical and education debt, and hell, why not a job guarantee? https://pluralistic.net/2020/06/25/canada-reads/#tcherneva I love Fix's work, and this report is no exception. He does it all in his spare time. Some nice progressive think tank should give him a grant so he can do (a lot) more of it. That all said, I *do* have a quibble with his conclusion about the adequacy of the American housing supply. In California, we have a shortage of 3-4 *million* homes, a number arrived at through the relatively robust method of adding up the number of California families that would like to have their own homes and subtracting the number of homes available near those families: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_housing_shortage How to explain the discrepancy? One possibility is that the price of housing is artificially *low*, because more than 181,000 people are homeless here. Hundreds of thousands of more people are living in overcrowded housing, with multiple families inhabiting spaces intended for just one (or even a single person). If all of those people were competing for housing, the price might rise even higher. Think of the people who have given up looking for work - because they're not in the workforce, wages go up. If they were competing in the labor market, wages would fall. Maybe all those people would *prefer* to have a job, but they're missing from the statistics. That's one theory. Another is that we're getting tripped up on averages again here. California *does* have some towns with many vacancies, extra supply that is pushing down prices; it's also got many places with far more people who want to live there than there are homes for. It's possible that there's enough supply *on average* across the states, but - as we've seen - averages are deceptive. Ultimately, I think both things can be true: we have a wage problem *and* we have (many, localized) supply problems. Both of these problems deserve our attention, and neither is acceptable in a civilized society. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Hey look at this * The National Security Case for Public AI https://cdn.vanderbilt.edu/vu-URL/wp-content/uploads/sites/412/2024/09/27201409/VPA-Paper-National-Security-Case-for-AI.pdf (h/t Bruce Schneier) * Disability Rights Are Technology Rights https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/06/disability-rights-are-technology-rights * Heterodox Approaches Will Provide Answers to the Multiple Cascading Crises of Our Future https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/10/heterodox-approaches-will-provide-answers-to-the-multiple-cascading-crises-of-our-future.html ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? This day in history #20yrsago Why market-forces can?t correct DRM https://web.archive.org/web/20041109090959/http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=19246 #15yrsago Awful 1962 marriage textbook speaks out against feminism, communism and interracial dating https://www.amalah.com/photos/when_you_marry/index.html #10yrsago UK Tories propose life sentences for using a computer to ?damage the economy? https://www.theguardian.com/law/2014/oct/23/computer-users-damage-national-security-face-jail #5yrsago BBC launches a Tor hidden service mirror to help people evade their countries? censoring firewalls https://web.archive.org/web/20191025120544/https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3083006/bbc-news-tor-dark-web-site #5yrsago The Youtubers? union just wants Google to give them the rulebook https://www.wired.com/story/youtube-union/ #5yrsago An important, elegant thought experiment on content moderation regulation https://twitter.com/Klonick/status/1186718183513907202 #1yrago Microincentives and Enshittification https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/24/cursed-bigness/#incentives-matter ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Upcoming appearances * TusCon (Tucson), Nov 8-10 https://tusconscificon.com/ * International Cooperative Alliance (New Delhi), Nov 24 https://icanewdelhi2024.coop/welcome/pages/Programme * ISSA-LA Holiday Celebration keynote (Los Angeles), Dec 18 https://issala.org/event/issa-la-december-18-dinner-meeting/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Recent appearances * Maximum Iceland Scenario - Data Caps, 3rd Party Android Stores, Nuclear Amazon (This Week in Tech) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5MkCwktKz0 * Speciale intervista a Cory Doctorow (Digitalia) https://digitalia.fm/744/ * Was There Ever An Old, Good Internet? (David Graeber Institute) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6Jlxx5TboE ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Latest books * 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 * Picks and Shovels: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books, February 2025 * Unauthorized Bread: a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2025 ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Colophon Today's top sources: Currently writing: * Enshittification: a nonfiction book about platform decay for Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Today's progress: 751 words (69838 words total). * 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 FEB 2025 Latest podcast: Spill, part one (a Little Brother story) https://craphound.com/littlebrother/2024/10/06/spill-part-one-a-little-brother-story/ This work - excluding any serialized fiction - is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? How to get Pluralistic: Blog (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): Pluralistic.net Newsletter (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://pluralistic.net/plura-list Mastodon (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic Medium (no ads, paywalled): https://doctorow.medium.com/ Twitter (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://twitter.com/doctorow Tumblr (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/tagged/pluralistic "*When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla*" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: OpenPGP_0x9026DBBE1FC237AF.asc Type: application/pgp-keys Size: 3650 bytes Desc: OpenPGP public key URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: OpenPGP_signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 203 bytes Desc: OpenPGP digital signature URL: From doctorow at craphound.com Fri Oct 25 09:03:51 2024 From: doctorow at craphound.com (Cory Doctorow) Date: Fri, 25 Oct 2024 06:03:51 -0700 Subject: [Plura-list] Ian McDonald's "The Wilding" Message-ID: Read today's issue online at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/25/bogman/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ I'll be in Tucson, AZ from November 8-10: I'm the Guest of Honor at the Tuscon science fiction convention: https://tusconscificon.com/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ Today's links * Ian McDonald's "The Wilding": A gorgeous, goddamned terrifying novel from one of the absolute greats. * Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. * This day in history: 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019, 2023 * Upcoming appearances: Where to find me. * Recent appearances: Where I've been. * 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. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ?? Ian McDonald's "The Wilding" Ian McDonald is one of those *absurdly* brilliant novelists that just leave me wondering the actual *fuck* he manages it. How does he cover so much ground, think up so many compelling characters, find so many gracenotes, conjure up so many complicated emotions? McDonald burst on the scene in the late 1980s, with the 1988 novel *Desolation Road* and then his 1989 *Out On Blue Six*, a slick, stylized cyberpunk-meets-Orwell tale that overflowed with beautiful prose, technomysticism, and sly jokes that hid sneaky truths that hid even more sly jokes: https://memex.craphound.com/2014/01/20/out-on-blue-six-ian-mcdonalds-brilliant-novel-is-back/ My my count, McDonald has now published *twenty* books - mostly novels, but a couple short story collections (and the most amazingly demented, Tom-Waits-inflected teddybear murder comic imaginable, 1994's *Kling Klang Klatch*): https://irishcomics.fandom.com/wiki/Kling_Klang_Klatch McDonald's work is truly globespanning. While he's made his mark on the Martian soil, and overtaken the moon with the *Luna* trilogy (his definitive rebuttal to Heinlein's *Moon Is a Harsh Mistress*) he is widely adored and much-awarded for the glittering, futuristic versions of Brazil (*Brasyl*), Tanzania (the *Chaga* series), and India (*River of Gods*). Indeed, McDonald's imagination has roamed so far over the Earth and the solar system that it's possible to overlook his fantastic reimaginings of Ireland, the country he was raised in. There's his Philip K Dick Award-winning 1991 novel *King of Morning, Queen of Day*, a swirling, mythopoeic novel of Celtic mysticism: https://www.baen.com/king-of-morning-queen-of-day.html And then there's 1992's *Hearts, Hands and Voices*, which is lowkey one of the best novels I have ever, ever read - a scorching science fictional allegory for The Troubles, but with the *gnarliest* biotech weirdness you can possibly imagine: https://archive.org/details/heartshandsvoice0000ianm/mode/2up McDonald's books cover so much goddamned ground, but one feature they all share is a prose styling wherein every sentence is at least 20% poetry, a fraction that somehow, impossibly, rises to as much as 150% in certain especially shiny passages. Like this passage, which opens *The Wilding*, McDonald's new horror novel that marks his first return to Ireland since 1992: > Autumn lay on the great bog in silvers and tans, late purples and duns. > The sun rose above the tall ash saplings and feral sycamore. It called the birds into full voice. Stabbing shrills, tumbles of notes, the flutes of dove-call, frantic ticking hisses, song upon song. In hedgerows and copses, among the pale foliage of the birches, in the weave of deep willow and the bramble fastnesses, each bird called and was heard. In this season the peatland held the day's warmth through the night and on the bright, clear mornings rivers of mist formed, filling the subtle hollow places in the exposed cuttings, the bogs and fields. High sun would dispel it but at this hour half of Lough Carrow lay mist-bound. Each blade of grass hung heavy with dew, the clumps of sedges were already browning, the bracken curling and crisping. > A pair of horns lifted above the willow scrub and out-grown ash hedges of the Wilding. Polished tips caught the low sun and kindled as bright and keen as spears. https://www.gollancz.co.uk/titles/ian-mcdonald/the-wilding/9781399611503/ *Oof*. I would drop everything to read Ian McDonald's *grocery lists* but after that opening, I wasn't going to put this one down, and I didn't, reading the whole thing on yesterday's flight home from my gigs in Atlanta this week. *The Wilding* is (I'm pretty sure?) McDonald's first horror novel, and it's fucking *terrifying*. It's set in a rural Irish peat bog that has been acquired by a conservation authority that is rewilding it after a century of industrial peat mining that stripped it back nearly to the bedrock. This rewilding process has been greatly accelerated by the covid lockdowns, which reduced the human footprint in the conservation area to nearly zero. The story's protagonist is Lisa, a hard-case Dubliner who came to the bog to do community service after a career as a crime syndicate driver for hire, a woman who never met a car she couldn't boost and pilot in or out of any tight situation. After years in the bog, she's ready to start a new life, studying Yeats at university, indulging a late-discovered love of poetry that has as much to do with her redemption as her years in the wild. Lisa's last duty before she leaves the bog and goes home to Dublin is leading a school group on a wild campout in one of the bog's deep clearings. It's a routine assignment, and while it's not her favorite duty, it's also not a serious hardship. But as the group hikes out to the campsite, one of her fellow guides is killed, without warning, by a mysterious beast that moves so quickly they can barely make out its monstrous form. Thus begins a tense, mysterious, spooky as *hell* story of survival in a haunted woods, written in the kind of poesy that has defined McDonald's career, and which - when deployed in service of terror - has the power to raise literal goosebumps. There's a *lot* of fantasy that deals with Celtic mythology, including McDonald's own *King of Morning, Queen of Day*, but the vibe of that stuff tends to the heroic and romantic - sure, there's the odd banshee, but in the main, it's mischievous wee people, pookas, and leprechauns. More fey than fear. But Irish mythology in its raw form is *terrifying*. The monsters of Irish storytelling are grotesque, mean, remorseless, and come in every shape and size. Some authors have done well by going back to the bestiary for the deep cuts. When I was a kid, I must have read John Coyne's *Hobgoblin* fifty times (mostly because it was about D&D, which I was obsessed with). I haven't read this one since I was about 12, and I have no idea if it'd hold up today, but it left me with a deep appreciation of the spooky multifariousness of monsters who dwell in Ireland's bogs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobgoblin_(novel) *The Wilding* is a suspense novel, which means there's no way to really sum up the plot without spoiling a lot of the affect, but suffice to say that McDonald brings large swathes of deep Irish lore to the surface, and it had me reading as fast as I could *and* wanting to put the book down and hide. What a *writer* McDonald is! The fact that this is the same guy who wrote last year's stunning secret-history/solarpunk/uncategorizable *wonder* that was *Hopeland* beggars belief: https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/30/electromancy/#the-grace Read you some Ian McDonald novels, is what I'm trying to say. This one is only available in the UK, if that's not where you are, consider mail-ordering it. Looks like they've got stock at Forbidden Planet for ?19 plus ?18 shipping to the US. Worth every penny: https://forbiddenplanet.com/424306-the-wilding-hardcover/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ?? Hey look at this * How one engineer beat the ban on home computers in socialist Yugoslavia https://www.theguardian.com/games/2024/oct/24/how-one-engineer-beat-the-ban-on-home-computers-in-socialist-yugoslavia * ?Not Medically Necessary?: Inside the Company Helping America?s Biggest Health Insurers Deny Coverage for Care https://www.propublica.org/article/evicore-health-insurance-denials-cigna-unitedhealthcare-aetna-prior-authorizations * Stand-up to Protect Our Vote https://www.standupstandup.tech/ (h/t Sumana Harihareswara) ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ?? This day in history #20yrsago Pitcairn rapists convicted but not jailed https://www.smh.com.au/world/six-pitcairn-men-guilty-of-rape-and-assaults-20041026-gdjzlz.html #20yrsago Build a $100 GNU/Linux machine https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/04/10/25/2337253/how-cheap-can-a-pc-be #15yrsago On the literary and scholarly awesomeness of the timezone file https://blog.jonudell.net/2009/10/23/a-literary-appreciation-of-the-olsonzoneinfotz-database/ #10yrsago Canadian MPs improvised spears to fight off shooter while PM Harper hid in the closet https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-attack-mps-fashioned-spears-while-harper-hid-in-closet/article21278580/ #5yrsago Zuck claims he chows down with politicos from ?across the spectrum? but they all seem to be far-right creeps https://theintercept.com/2019/10/25/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-dinners/ #1yrago Bad King Richard got rich by exploiting workers at King's Faire https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/25/huzzah/#bad-king-richard ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ?? Upcoming appearances * TusCon (Tucson), Nov 8-10 https://tusconscificon.com/ * International Cooperative Alliance (New Delhi), Nov 24 https://icanewdelhi2024.coop/welcome/pages/Programme * ISSA-LA Holiday Celebration keynote (Los Angeles), Dec 18 https://issala.org/event/issa-la-december-18-dinner-meeting/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ?? Recent appearances * Maximum Iceland Scenario - Data Caps, 3rd Party Android Stores, Nuclear Amazon (This Week in Tech) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5MkCwktKz0 * Speciale intervista a Cory Doctorow (Digitalia) https://digitalia.fm/744/ * Was There Ever An Old, Good Internet? (David Graeber Institute) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6Jlxx5TboE ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ?? Latest books * 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 * Picks and Shovels: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books, February 2025 * Unauthorized Bread: a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2025 ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ?? Colophon Today's top sources: Currently writing: * Enshittification: a nonfiction book about platform decay for Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Today's progress: 783 words (70621 words total). * 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 FEB 2025 Latest podcast: Spill, part one (a Little Brother story) https://craphound.com/littlebrother/2024/10/06/spill-part-one-a-little-brother-story/ This work - excluding any serialized fiction - is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ?? 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Name: OpenPGP_signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 203 bytes Desc: OpenPGP digital signature URL: From doctorow at craphound.com Sat Oct 26 09:38:57 2024 From: doctorow at craphound.com (Cory Doctorow) Date: Sat, 26 Oct 2024 06:38:57 -0700 Subject: [Plura-list] Keeping a suspense file gives you superpowers Message-ID: <976d5089-5918-44c3-ade4-30d84b126087@craphound.com> Read today's issue online at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/26/one-weird-trick/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ I'll be in Tucson, AZ from November 8-10: I'm the Guest of Honor at the Tuscon science fiction convention: https://tusconscificon.com/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ Today's links * Keeping a suspense file gives you superpowers: The single best part of "Getting Things Done." * Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. * This day in history: 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019, 2023 * Upcoming appearances: Where to find me. * Recent appearances: Where I've been. * 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. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Keeping a suspense file gives you superpowers Two decades ago, I was part of a group of nerds who got really interested in how each other managed to do what we did. The effort was kicked off by Danny O'Brien, who called it "Lifehacking" and I played a small role in getting that term popularized: https://craphound.com/lifehacksetcon04.txt While we were all devoted to sharing tips and tricks from our own lives, many of us converged on an outside expert, David Allen, and his bestselling book "Getting Things Done" (GTD, to those in the know): https://gettingthingsdone.com/ GTD is a collection of relatively simple tactics for coping with, prioritizing, and organizing the things you want to do. Many of the methods relate to organizing your own projects, using a handful of context-based to-do lists (e.g. a list of things to do at the office, at home, while waiting in line, etc). These lists consist of simple tasks. Those tasks are, in turn, derived from *another* list, of "projects" - things that require more than one task, which can be anything from planning dinner to writing a novel to helping your kid apply to university. The point of all this list-making isn't to do everything on the lists. While these lists *do* help you remember what to do next, what they're *really* good for is deciding what *not* to do - at all. The promise of GTD is that it will help you *consciously choose* not to do some of the things you set out to accomplish. This is in contrast to how most of us operate: we have a bunch of things we want to do, and we end up doing the things that are easiest, or at top of mind, even if they're not the most important things. GTD recognizes that you can be very "productive" (in the sense of getting many things done) and *still* not do the things that you *really* wanted to do. You know what this is like: you finish a Sunday with an organized sock-drawer, all your pennies neatly rolled, the trash-can in your car emptied...and no work at all on that novel you're hoping to write. You can't do everything, but you *can* control what you don't do, rather than just defaulting into completing a string of trivial, meaningless tasks and leaving the big stuff on the sidelines. Organizing your own tasks and projects is a hugely powerful habit, and one that's made a world of difference to my personal and professional life. But while good to-do lists can take you very far in life, they have a hard limit: *other people*. Almost every ambitious thing you want to do involves someone else's contribution. Even the most solitary of projects can be derailed if your tax accountant misses a key email and you end up getting audited or paying a huge penalty. That's where the *other* kind of GTD list comes in: the list of things you're waiting for from *other people*. I used to be assiduous in maintaining this list, but then the pandemic struck and no one was meeting any of their commitments, and I just gave up on it, and never went back...until about a month ago. Returning to these lists (they're sometimes called "suspense files") made me realize how many of the problems - some hugely consequential - in my life could have been avoided if I'd just gone back to this habit earlier. My suspense file is literally just some lines partway down a text file that lives on my desktop called todo.txt that has all my to-dos as well. Here's some sample entries from my suspense file: > WAITING EMAIL Sean about ENSHITTIIFCATION manuscript deadline 10/24/24 > WAITING EMAIL Russ about missing royalty statement 10/12/24 > WAITING EMAIL Alice about Christmas vacation hotel 10/8/24 10/20/24 > WAITING EMAIL Ted about Sacramento event 8/12/24 9/5/24 10/5/24 10/20/24 > > WAITING CALL LA County about mosquito abatement 10/25/24 > WAITING CALL School attendance officer about London trip 10/18/24 > > WAITING MONEY EFF reimbusement for taxi to staff retreat $34.98 10/7/24 > > WAITING SHIPMENT New Neal Stephenson novel from Bookshop.org 10/23/24 This is as simple as things could possibly be! I literally just type "WAITING," then a space, then the category of thing I'm waiting for, then a few specifics, then the date. When I follow up on an item, I add the date of the followup to the end of the line. If I get some details that I might need to reference later (say, a tracking code for a shipment, or a date for an event I'm trying to organize), I'll add that, too, as it comes up. Creating a new entry on this list takes 10-25 seconds. When someone gets back to me, I just delete that line. That is literally *it*. Every day, or sometimes a couple of times a day, I will just run my eyes up and down this list and see if there's anything that's unreasonably overdue, and then I'll send a reminder or make a followup call. In the example above, you can see that I've been chasing Ted about Sacramento for *months* now (this is a fake entry - no plans to go to Sacto at the moment, sorry): > WAITING EMAIL Ted about Sacramento event 8/12/24 9/5/24 10/5/24 10/20/24 So now I've emailed Ted four times. Maybe my email's going to his spam, and so I could try emailing a friend of Ted and ask them to check whether he's getting my messages. But maybe Ted's trying to send me a message here - he's just not interested in doing the event after all. Or maybe Ted *is* available, but he's so snowed under that he's in danger of fumbling it, and I need to bring in some help if I want it to happen. All of these are possibilities, and the fact that I'm tracking this means that I now get to make an *active decision*: cancel the gig or double down on making sure it happens. Without this list, the gig would just die by default, forgotten by both of us. Maybe that's OK, but I can't tell you how many times I've run into someone who said, "Dammit, I just remembered I was supposed to email you about getting that thing done and I dropped the ball. Shit! I *really* was looking forward to that. Is it too late now?" Often it *is* too late. Even if it's not, the work of picking up the pieces and starting over is *much* more than just following through on the original plan. Restarting my suspense file made me realize how many of the (often expensive or painful) fumbles I've had since the pandemic were the result of me not noticing that someone else hadn't gotten back to me. In essence, a suspense file is *a way for me to manage other people's to-do lists*. Let me unpack that. By "managing other people's to-do lists," I don't mean that I'm deciding for other people what they will and won't do (that would be both weird and gross). I mean that I'm making sure that if someone else fails to do something we were planning together, it's *because they decided not to do it*, not because they forgot. As GTD teaches us, the *real* point of a to-do list isn't just helping us remember what to do - it's helping us choose what we're *not* going to do. This is not an imposition, it's a kindness. The point of a suspense file isn't to nag others into living up to their commitments, it's to form a network of support among collaborators where we all help one another make those conscious choices about what we're *not* going to do, rather than having the stuff we really value slip away because we forgot about it. I have frequent collaborators whom I know to be incapable of juggling too many things at once, and my suspense file has helped me hone my sense of when it would be appropriate to ask them if they want to do something together and when to leave them be. The suspense file helps me dial in how much I rely on each person in my life (relying on someone isn't the same as valuing them - and indeed, one way to value someone is to only rely on them for things they're able to do, rather than putting them in a position of feeling bad for failing you). Lifehacking gets a bad rap, and justifiably so. Many of the tips that traffick as "lifehacks" are trivial or stupid or both. What's more, too much lifehacking can paint you into a corner where you've hacked any flexibility out of your life: https://locusmag.com/2017/11/cory-doctorow-how-to-do-everything-lifehacking-considered-harmful/ But ever since Danny coined the term "lifehack," back in 2004, I've been cultivating daily habits that have let me live the life I wanted to live, accomplishing the things I wanted to accomplish. I figured out how to turn daily writing into a habit and now I've written more than 30 books: https://www.locusmag.com/Features/2009/01/cory-doctorow-writing-in-age-of.html A daily habit of opening a huge, ever-tweaked collection of tabs has made me smarter about the news, helped me keep tabs on my friends, helped me find fraudsters who were trying to steal my identity, and ensured that all those Kickstarter rewards and other long-delayed, erratic shipments didn't slip through the cracks: https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/25/today-in-tabs/#unfucked-rota Daily habits are superpowers. Once something is a habit, you get it for free. GTD turns on decomposing big, daunting projects into bite-sized, trackable tasks. I have a bunch of spaces around the house - my office, my closet, the junk sheds down the side of the house, our tiki bar - that I used to clean out once or twice a year. Each one was all-day, sweaty, dirty job, and for most of the year, all of those spaces were a dusty, disorganized mess. A month ago, I added a new daily task: spend five minutes cleaning one space. I did the bar first, and after two weeks, I'd taken down every tchotchke and bottle and polished it, reorganizing the undercounter spaces where things pile up: https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=37996580417%40N01&sort=date-taken-desc&text=tiki+bar&view_all=1 Now I'm working through my office. Ever day, I'm dusting a bookshelf and combing through it for discards to stick in our Little Free Library. Takes less than five minutes most day, and I'll be done in about three weeks, when I'll move on to my closet, then the side of the house, and then back to the bar. A daily short break where I get away from my computer and make my living and working environments nicer is a wonderful habit to cultivate. I'm 53 years old now. I was 33 when I started following Getting Things Done. In that time, I've gotten a lot done, but what's even more relevant is that I *didn't* get a ton of things done - things that I *consciously* chose not to abandon. Figuring out what you want to do, and then keeping it on track - in manageable, healthy, daily rhythms that bring along the other people you rely on - may not be the *whole* secret to a fulfilled life, but it's certainly a part of it. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Hey look at this * BOOM: Judge Blocks $8.5B Fashion House Merger https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/boom-judge-blocks-85b-fashion-house * How Google is Killing Bloggers and Small Publishers - And Why https://www.justapack.com/how-google-is-killing-bloggers-and-small-publishers-and-why/ * Bluesky is not decentralized https://beige.party/@possibledog/113367977656537478 (h/t Hacker News) ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? This day in history #20yrago Printer cartridges aren?t copyrighted works https://web.archive.org/web/20041102085343/http://lawgeek.typepad.com/lawgeek/2004/10/static_control_.html #15yrsago Italian politician sues 4000+ YouTube commenters https://web.archive.org/web/20091030044651/http://www.antoniodipietro.com/en/2009/10/we_will_defend_you_all_from_cu.html #15yrago Terrified London cops spending millions gathering useless intelligence on peaceful protestors https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/oct/26/police-protest-data-protection #10yrsago Edward Snowden interviewed by Lawrence Lessig https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_Sr96TFQQE #10yrsago CHP officer who stole and shared nude photos of traffic-stop victim claims ?it?s a game? https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/east-bay-chp-officer-accused-of-stealing-nude-photos-says-its-game-for-police-california-highway-patrol-sean-harrington/ #5yrsago ?Affordances?: a new science fiction story that climbs the terrible technology adoption curve https://slate.com/technology/2019/10/affordances-cory-doctorow-sf-story-algorithmic-bias-facial-recognition.html #5yrsago Nearly all Americans? taxes will go down under Medicare for All https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/25/medicare-for-all-taxes-saez-zucman #5yrsago Researchers? budget blown when a migrating eagle?s tracker chip connects to an Iranian cellular tower and sends expensive SMSes https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50180781 #5yrsago New Hampshire state Rep John Potucek kills Right to Repair bill: ?cellphones are throwaways?just get a new one? https://www.vice.com/en/article/lawmaker-kills-repair-bill-because-cellphones-are-throwaways/ #1yrago Amazon Alexa is a graduate of the Darth Vader MBA https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/26/hit-with-a-brick/#graceful-failure Upcoming appearances (permalink) * TusCon (Tucson), Nov 8-10 https://tusconscificon.com/ * International Cooperative Alliance (New Delhi), Nov 24 https://icanewdelhi2024.coop/welcome/pages/Programme * ISSA-LA Holiday Celebration keynote (Los Angeles), Dec 18 https://issala.org/event/issa-la-december-18-dinner-meeting/ * TusCon (Tucson), Nov 8-10 https://tusconscificon.com/ * International Cooperative Alliance (New Delhi), Nov 24 https://icanewdelhi2024.coop/welcome/pages/Programme * ISSA-LA Holiday Celebration keynote (Los Angeles), Dec 18 https://issala.org/event/issa-la-december-18-dinner-meeting/ Recent appearances (permalink) * Maximum Iceland Scenario - Data Caps, 3rd Party Android Stores, Nuclear Amazon (This Week in Tech) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5MkCwktKz0 * Speciale intervista a Cory Doctorow (Digitalia) https://digitalia.fm/744/ * Was There Ever An Old, Good Internet? (David Graeber Institute) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6Jlxx5TboE 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 middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2025 Colophon (permalink) Today's top sources: Currently writing: * Enshittification: a nonfiction book about platform decay for Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Friday's progress: 761 words (72165 words total). * 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 FEB 2025 Latest podcast: Spill, part one (a Little Brother story) https://craphound.com/littlebrother/2024/10/06/spill-part-one-a-little-brother-story/ This work - excluding any serialized fiction - is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution. How to get Pluralistic: Blog (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): Pluralistic.net Newsletter (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://pluralistic.net/plura-list Mastodon (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic Medium (no ads, paywalled): https://doctorow.medium.com/ Twitter (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://twitter.com/doctorow Tumblr (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/tagged/pluralistic "When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: OpenPGP_0x9026DBBE1FC237AF.asc Type: application/pgp-keys Size: 3650 bytes Desc: OpenPGP public key URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: OpenPGP_signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 203 bytes Desc: OpenPGP digital signature URL: From doctorow at craphound.com Mon Oct 28 09:54:28 2024 From: doctorow at craphound.com (Cory Doctorow) Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2024 06:54:28 -0700 Subject: [Plura-list] The US Copyright Office frees the McFlurry Message-ID: <0a590897-dee8-468b-97a8-c536de41529c@craphound.com> Read today's issue online at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/28/mcbroken/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ I'll be in Tucson, AZ from November 8-10: I'm the Guest of Honor at the Tuscon science fiction convention: https://tusconscificon.com/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ Today's links * The US Copyright Office frees the McFlurry: The only kind of DMCA exemption that makes a difference. * Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. * This day in history: 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019, 2023 * Upcoming appearances: Where to find me. * Recent appearances: Where I've been. * 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. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? The US Copyright Office frees the McFlurry I have spent a quarter century obsessed with the weirdest corner of the weirdest section of the worst internet law on the US statute books: Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the 1998 law that makes it a felony to help someone change how their own computer works so it serves them, rather than a distant corporation. Under DMCA 1201, giving someone a tool to "bypass an access control for a copyrighted work" is a felony punishable by a 5-year prison sentence and a $500k fine - for a first offense. This law *can* refer to access controls for traditional copyrighted works, like movies. Under DMCA 1201, if you help someone with photosensitive epilepsy add a plug-in to the Netflix player in their browser that blocks strobing pictures that can trigger seizures, you're a felon: https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html-media/2017Jul/0005.html But *software* is a copyrighted work, and everything from printer cartridges to car-engine parts have software in them. If the manufacturer puts an "access control" on that software, they can send their customers (and competitors) to prison for passing around tools to help them fix their cars or use third-party ink. Now, even though the DMCA is a copyright law (that's what the "C" in DMCA stands for, after all); and even though blocking video strobes, using third party ink, and fixing your car are *not* copyright violations, the DMCA can still send you to prison, for a *long-ass time* for doing these things, provided the manufacturer designs their product so that using it the way that suits you best involves getting around an "access control." As you might expect, this is quite a tempting proposition for any manufacturer hoping to enshittify their products, because they know you can't legally disenshittify them. These access controls have metasized into every kind of device imaginable. Garage-door openers: https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/09/lead-me-not-into-temptation/#chamberlain Refrigerators: https://pluralistic.net/2020/06/12/digital-feudalism/#filtergate Dishwashers: https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/03/cassette-rewinder/#disher-bob Treadmills: https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/22/vapescreen/#jane-get-me-off-this-crazy-thing Tractors: https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/23/reputation-laundry/#deere-john Cars: https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/edison-not-tesla/#demon-haunted-world Printers: https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/07/inky-wretches/#epson-salty And even printer *paper*: https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/16/unauthorized-paper/#dymo-550 DMCA 1201 is the brainchild of Bruce Lehmann, Bill Clinton's Copyright Czar, who was repeatedly warned that cancerous proliferation this was the foreseeable, inevitable outcome of his pet policy. As a sop to his critics, Lehman added a largely ornamental safety valve to his law, ordering the US Copyright Office to invite submissions every three years petitioning for "use exemptions" to the blanket ban on circumventing access-controls. I call this "ornamental" because if the Copyright Office thinks that, say, it should be legal for you to bypass an access control to use third-party ink in your printer, or a third-party app store in your phone, all they can do under DMCA 1201 is grant you the right to *use* a circumvention tool. But they *can't* give you the right to *acquire* that tool. I know that sounds confusing, but that's only because it's very, very stupid. How stupid? Well, in 2001, the US Trade Representative arm-twisted the EU into adopting its own version of this law (Article 6 of the EUCD), and in 2003, Norway added the law to its lawbooks. On the eve of that addition, I traveled to Oslo to debate the minister involved: https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/28/clintons-ghost/#felony-contempt-of-business-model The minister praised his law, explaining that it gave blind people the right to bypass access controls on ebooks so that they could feed them to screen readers, Braille printers, and other assistive tools. OK, I said, but how do they get the software that jailbreaks their ebooks so they can make use of this exemption? Am *I* allowed to give them that tool? No, the minister said, you're not allowed to do that, that would be a crime. Is the Norwegian government allowed to give them that tool? No. How about a blind rights advocacy group? No, not them either. A university computer science department? Nope. A commercial vendor? Certainly not. No, the minister explained, under his law, a blind person would be expected to *personally* reverse engineer a program like Adobe E-Reader, in hopes of discovering a defect that they could exploit by writing a program to extract the ebook text. Oh, I said. But if a blind person *did* manage to do this, could they supply that tool to *other* blind people? Well, no, the minister said. Each and every blind person must personally - without any help from anyone else - figure out how to reverse-engineer the ebook program, and then individually author their own alternative reader program that worked with the text of their ebooks. *That* is what is meant by a *use exemption* without a *tools exemption*. It's useless. A sick joke, even. The US Copyright Office has been valiantly holding exemptions proceedings every three years since the start of this century, and they've granted many sensible exemptions, including ones to benefit people with disabilities, or to let you jailbreak your phone, or let media professors extract video clips from DVDs, and so on. Tens of thousands of person-hours have been flushed into this pointless exercise, generating a long list of things you are now *technically* allowed to do, but only if you are a reverse-engineering specialist type of computer programmer who can manage the process from beginning to end in total isolation and secrecy. But there *is* one kind of use exception the Copyright Office can grant that *is* potentially game-changing: an exemption for decoding diagnostic codes. You see, DMCA 1201 has been a critical weapon for the corporate anti-repair movement. By scrambling error codes in cars, tractors, appliances, insulin pumps, phones and other devices, manufacturers can wage war on independent repair, depriving third-party technicians of the diagnostic information they need to figure out how to fix your stuff and keep it going. This is bad enough in normal times, but during the acute phase of the covid pandemic, hospitals found themselves unable to maintain their ventilators because of access controls. Nearly all ventilators come from a single med-tech monopolist, Medtronic, which charges hospitals hundreds of dollars to dispatch their own repair technicians to fix its products. But when covid ended nearly all travel, Medtronic could no longer provide on-site calls. Thankfully, an anonymous hacker started building homemade (illegal) circumvention devices to let hospital technicians fix the ventilators themselves, improvising housings for them from old clock radios, guitar pedals and whatever else was to hand, then mailing them anonymously to hospitals: https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/10/flintstone-delano-roosevelt/#medtronic-again Once a manufacturer monopolizes repair in this way, they can force you to use their official service depots, charging you as much as they'd like; requiring you to use their official, expensive replacement parts; and dictating when your gadget is "too broken to fix," forcing you to buy a new one. That's bad enough when we're talking about refusing to fix a phone so you buy a new one - but imagine having a spinal injury and relying on a $100,000 exoskeleton to get from place to place and prevent muscle wasting, clots, and other immobility-related conditions, only to have the manufacturer decide that the gadget is too old to fix and refusing to give you the technical assistance to replace a *watch battery* so that you can get around again: https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/26/24255074/former-jockey-michael-straight-exoskeleton-repair-battery When the US Copyright Office grants a use exemption for extracting diagnostic codes from a busted device, they empower repair advocates to put that gadget up on a workbench and torture it into giving up those codes. The codes can then be integrated into an unofficial diagnostic tool, one that can make sense of the scrambled, obfuscated error codes that a device sends when it breaks - without having to unscramble them. In other words, only the company that makes the diagnostic tool has to bypass an access control, but the people who *use* that tool later do not violate DMCA 1201. This is all relevant this month because the US Copyright Office just released the latest batch of 1201 exemptions, and among them is the right to circumvention access controls "allowing for repair of retail-level food preparation equipment": https://publicknowledge.org/public-knowledge-ifixit-free-the-mcflurry-win-copyright-office-dmca-exemption-for-ice-cream-machines/ While this covers all kinds of food prep gear, the exemption request - filed by Public Knowledge and Ifixit - was inspired by the bizarre war over the tragically fragile McFlurry machine. These machines - which extrude soft-serve frozen desserts - are notoriously failure-prone, with 5-16% of the broken at any given time. Taylor, the giant kitchen tech company that makes the machines, charges franchisees a *fortune* to repair them, producing a steady stream of profits for the company. This sleazy business prompted some ice-cream hackers to found a startup called Kytch, a high-powered automation and diagnostic tool that was hugely popular with McDonald's franchisees (the gadget was partially designed by the legendary hardware hacker Andrew "bunnie" Huang!). In response, Taylor played dirty, making a less-capable clone of the Kytch, trying to buy Kytch out, and teaming up with McDonald's corporate to bombard franchisees with legal scare-stories about the dangers of using a Kytch to keep their soft-serve flowing, thanks to DMCA 1201: https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/20/euthanize-rentier-enablers/#cold-war Kytch isn't the only beneficiary of the new exemption: all kinds of industrial kitchen equipment is covered. In upholding the Right to Repair, the Copyright Office overruled objections of some of its closest historical allies, the Entertainment Software Association, Motion Picture Association, and Recording Industry Association of America, who all sided with Taylor and McDonald's and opposed the exemption: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/10/us-copyright-office-frees-the-mcflurry-allowing-repair-of-ice-cream-machines/ This is literally the only useful kind of DMCA 1201 exemption the Copyright Office can grant, and the fact that they granted it (along with a similar exemption for medical devices) is a welcome bright spot. But make no mistake, the fact that we finally found a narrow way in which DMCA 1201 can be made *slightly* less stupid does not redeem this outrageous law. It should still be repealed and condemned to the scrapheap of history. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Hey look at this * Cap'n Crunch comes from Cedar Rapids https://nealstephenson.substack.com/p/capn-crunch-comes-from-cedar-rapids * I am my own legal department: the promise and peril of ?just go independent? https://www.citationneeded.news/i-am-my-own-legal-department/ * The Color of Television ~ by Disposable Planet ~ Neuromancer Inspired Album! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTg6v5OWWa0 ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? This day in history #20yrsago For sale: action against bloggers https://web.archive.org/web/20041103065814/http://weblog.siliconvalley.com/column/dangillmor/archives/010962.shtml#010962 #15yrsago US Department of Defense adopts ?open source guidelines? https://powdermonkey.blogs.com/powdermonkey/2009/10/department-of-defense-new-guidance-on-open-source-software.html #15yrsago Brit business secretary promises to punish accused file-sharers? families with Internet disconnection by 2011 https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/oct/28/mandelson-date-blocking-filesharers-connections #10yrsago 2600 magazine profiled in the New Yorker https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/print-magazine-hackers #10yrsago LAX delays flight because someone?s wifi network had scary terrorist name https://abc7.com/american-airlines-lax-wifi/367110/ #10yrsago Who is Gamergate? Analysis of 316K tweets https://medium.com/message/72-hours-of-gamergate-e00513f7cf5d #10yrsago The Peripheral: William Gibson vs William Gibson https://memex.craphound.com/2014/10/28/the-peripheral-william-gibson-vs-william-gibson/ #10yrsago Thousands of Americans got sub-broadband ISP service, thanks to telcoms shenanigans https://web.archive.org/web/20141030214728/https://www.measurementlab.net/static/observatory/M-Lab_Interconnection_Study_US.pdf #5yrsago Teen Vogue exec editor Samhita Mukhopadhyay: ?proud to be ?the most insidious form of teen communist propaganda'? https://jacobin.com/2019/10/teen-vogue-samhita-mukhopadhyay-interview/ #5yrsago Samsung satellite crashes in family?s yard https://www.wzzm13.com/article/news/weird/satellite-lands-in-michigan-yard/69-8ea9d127-83a7-4729-9f20-6b79bbf77a11 #5yrsago Les gilets noirs: a French protest movement defending migrants? rights https://theintercept.com/2019/10/27/france-black-vests-gilets-noirs/ #5yrsago Navy Yard worker outed by Unicorn Riot is indicted for lying to the FBI about his white nationalist group memberships https://www.inquirer.com/news/vanguard-america-unite-the-right-fred-arenas-mccormick-foley-20191025.html #5yrsago Indigenous elder on Sidewalk Labs?s Toronto consultation: ?like being given blankets and gun powder and whisky to trade for our participation? https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/indigenous-elder-slams-hollow-and-tokenistic-consultation-by-sidewalk-labs/article_450e40c2-69b4-53a4-b17d-f094be005b43.html #5yrsago The penniless hero of the ransomware epidemic has written more decryptors than anyone else https://www.propublica.org/article/the-ransomware-superhero-of-normal-illinois #5yrsago The top FBI lawyer who tried to force Apple to backdoor its crypto now says working crypto is essential to public safety and national security https://memex.craphound.com/2019/10/28/the-top-fbi-lawyer-who-tried-to-force-apple-to-backdoor-its-crypto-now-says-working-crypto-is-essential-to-public-safety-and-national-security/ #1yrago A media literacy handbook for Israel-Gaza https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/28/fog-o-war/##breaking-news #1yrago A taxonomy of corporate bullshit https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/27/six-sells/#youre-holding-it-wrong Upcoming appearances (permalink) * TusCon (Tucson), Nov 8-10 https://tusconscificon.com/ * International Cooperative Alliance (New Delhi), Nov 24 https://icanewdelhi2024.coop/welcome/pages/Programme * ISSA-LA Holiday Celebration keynote (Los Angeles), Dec 18 https://issala.org/event/issa-la-december-18-dinner-meeting/ * TusCon (Tucson), Nov 8-10 https://tusconscificon.com/ * International Cooperative Alliance (New Delhi), Nov 24 https://icanewdelhi2024.coop/welcome/pages/Programme * ISSA-LA Holiday Celebration keynote (Los Angeles), Dec 18 https://issala.org/event/issa-la-december-18-dinner-meeting/ Recent appearances (permalink) * Maximum Iceland Scenario - Data Caps, 3rd Party Android Stores, Nuclear Amazon (This Week in Tech) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5MkCwktKz0 * Speciale intervista a Cory Doctorow (Digitalia) https://digitalia.fm/744/ * Was There Ever An Old, Good Internet? (David Graeber Institute) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6Jlxx5TboE 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 middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2025 Colophon (permalink) Today's top sources: Currently writing: * Enshittification: a nonfiction book about platform decay for Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Friday's progress: 761 words (72165 words total). * 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 FEB 2025 Latest podcast: Spill, part one (a Little Brother story) https://craphound.com/littlebrother/2024/10/06/spill-part-one-a-little-brother-story/ This work - excluding any serialized fiction - is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution. How to get Pluralistic: Blog (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): Pluralistic.net Newsletter (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://pluralistic.net/plura-list Mastodon (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic Medium (no ads, paywalled): https://doctorow.medium.com/ Twitter (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://twitter.com/doctorow Tumblr (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/tagged/pluralistic "When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: OpenPGP_0x9026DBBE1FC237AF.asc Type: application/pgp-keys Size: 3650 bytes Desc: OpenPGP public key URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: OpenPGP_signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 203 bytes Desc: OpenPGP digital signature URL: From doctorow at craphound.com Tue Oct 29 15:19:46 2024 From: doctorow at craphound.com (Cory Doctorow) Date: Tue, 29 Oct 2024 12:19:46 -0700 Subject: [Plura-list] Conspiratorialism as a material phenomenon Message-ID: Read today's issue online at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/29/hobbesian-slop/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ I'll be in Tucson, AZ from November 8-10: I'm the Guest of Honor at the Tuscon science fiction convention: https://tusconscificon.com/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ Today's links * Conspiratorialism as a material phenomenon: What work does a conspiracy fantasy do? * Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. * This day in history: 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019 * Upcoming appearances: Where to find me. * Recent appearances: Where I've been. * 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. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ?? Conspiratorialism as a material phenomenon I think it behooves us to be a little skeptical of stories about AI driving people to believe wrong things and commit ugly actions. Not that I like the AI slop that is filling up our social media, but when we look at the ways that AI is harming us, slop is pretty low on the list. The real AI harms come from the actual things that AI companies sell AI to do. There's the AI gun-detector gadgets that the credulous Mayor Eric Adams put in NYC subways, which led to 2,749 invasive searches and turned up *zero* guns: https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/nycs-subway-weapons-detector-pilot-program-ends/ Any time AI is used to predict crime - predictive policing, bail determinations, Child Protective Services red flags - they magnify the biases already present in these systems, and, even worse, they give this bias the veneer of scientific neutrality. This process is called "empiricism-washing," and you know you're experiencing it when you hear some variation on "it's just math, math can't be racist": https://pluralistic.net/2020/06/23/cryptocidal-maniacs/#phrenology When AI is used to replace customer service representatives, it systematically defrauds customers, while providing an "accountability sink" that allows the company to disclaim responsibility for the thefts: https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/23/maximal-plausibility/#reverse-centaurs When AI is used to perform high-velocity "decision support" that is supposed to inform a "human in the loop," it quickly overwhelms its human overseer, who takes on the role of "moral crumple zone," pressing the "OK" button as fast as they can. This is bad enough when the sacrificial victim is a human overseeing, say, proctoring software that accuses remote students of cheating on their tests: https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/16/unauthorized-paper/#cheating-anticheat But it's potentially lethal when the AI is a transcription engine that doctors have to use to feed notes to a data-hungry electronic health record system that is optimized to commit health insurance fraud by seeking out pretenses to "upcode" a patient's treatment. *Those* AIs are prone to inventing things the doctor never said, inserting them into the record that the doctor is supposed to review, but remember, the only reason the AI is there at all is that the doctor is being asked to do so much paperwork that they don't have time to treat their patients: https://apnews.com/article/ai-artificial-intelligence-health-business-90020cdf5fa16c79ca2e5b6c4c9bbb14 My point is that "worrying about AI" is a zero-sum game. When we train our fire on the stuff that isn't important to the AI stock swindlers' business-plans (like creating AI slop), we should remember that the AI companies could halt all of that activity and not lose a dime in revenue. By contrast, when we focus on AI applications that do the most direct harm - policing, health, security, customer service - we *also* focus on the AI applications that make the most *money* and drive the most investment. AI hasn't attracted hundreds of billions in investment capital because investors love AI slop. All the money pouring into the system - from investors, from customers, from easily gulled big-city mayors - is chasing things that AI is objectively *very bad at* and those things also cause much more harm than AI slop. If you want to be a good AI critic, you should devote the majority of your focus to these applications. Sure, they're not as visually arresting, but discrediting them is *financially* arresting, and that's what really matters. All that said: AI slop is real, there is a lot of it, and just because it doesn't warrant priority over the stuff AI companies actually *sell*, it still has cultural significance and is worth considering. AI slop has turned Facebook into an anaerobic lagoon of botshit, just the laziest, grossest engagement bait, much of it the product of rise-and-grind spammers who avidly consume get rich quick "courses" and then churn out a torrent of "shrimp Jesus" and fake chainsaw sculptures: https://www.404media.co/email/1cdf7620-2e2f-4450-9cd9-e041f4f0c27f/ For poor engagement farmers in the global south chasing the fractional pennies that Facebook shells out for successful clickbait, the actual content of the slop is beside the point. These spammers aren't necessarily tuned into the psyche of the wealthy-world Facebook users who represent Meta's top monetization subjects. They're just trying *everything* and doubling down on anything that moves the needle, A/B splitting their way into weird, hyper-optimized, grotesque crap: https://www.404media.co/facebook-is-being-overrun-with-stolen-ai-generated-images-that-people-think-are-real/ In other words, Facebook's AI spammers are laying out a banquet of arbitrary possibilities, like the letters on a Ouija board, and the Facebook users' clicks and engagement are a collective ideomotor response, moving the algorithm's planchette to the options that tug hardest at our collective delights (or, more often, disgusts). So, rather than thinking of AI spammers as *creating* the ideological and aesthetic trends that drive millions of confused Facebook users into condemning, praising, and arguing about surreal botshit, it's more true to say that spammers are *discovering* these trends within their subjects' collective yearnings and terrors, and then *refining* them by exploring endlessly ramified variations in search of unsuspected niches. (If you know anything about AI, this may remind you of something: a Generative Adversarial Network, in which one bot creates variations on a theme, and another bot ranks how closely the variations approach some ideal. In this case, the spammers are the generators and the Facebook users they evince reactions from are the discriminators) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generative_adversarial_network I got to thinking about this today while reading User Mag, Taylor Lorenz's superb newsletter, and her reporting on a new AI slop trend, "My neighbor?s ridiculous reason for egging my car": https://www.usermag.co/p/my-neighbors-ridiculous-reason-for The "egging my car" slop consists of endless variations on a story in which the poster (generally a figure of sympathy, canonically a single mother of newborn twins) complains that her awful neighbor threw dozens of eggs at her car to punish her for parking in a way that blocked his elaborate Hallowe'en display. The text is accompanied by an AI-generated image showing a modest family car that has been absolutely *plastered* with broken eggs, dozens upon dozens of them. According to Lorenz, variations on this slop are topping very large Facebook discussion forums totalling millions of users, like "Movie Character...,USA Story, Volleyball Women, Top Trends, Love Style, and God Bless." These posts link to SEO sites laden with programmatic advertising. The funnel goes: i. Create outrage and hence broad reach; ii, A small percentage of those who see the post will click through to the SEO site; iii. A small fraction of *those* users will click a low-quality ad; iv. The ad will pay homeopathic sub-pennies to the spammer. The revenue per user on this kind of scam is next to nothing, so it only works if it can get very broad reach, which is why the spam is so designed for engagement maximization. The more discussion a post generates, the more users Facebook recommends it to. These are *very* effective engagement bait. Almost all AI slop gets *some* free engagement in the form of arguments between users who don't know they're commenting an AI scam and people hectoring them for falling for the scam. This is like the free square in the middle of a bingo card. Beyond that, there's multivalent outrage: some users are furious about food wastage; others about the poor, victimized "mother" (some users are furious about both). Not only do users get to voice their fury at both of these imaginary sins, they can also argue with one another about whether, say, food wastage even *matters* when compared to the petty-minded aggression of the "perpetrator." These discussions also offer lots of opportunity for violent fantasies about the bad guy getting a comeuppance, offers to travel to the imaginary AI-generated suburb to dole out a beating, etc. All in all, the spammers behind this tedious fiction have really figured out how to rope in all kinds of users' attention. Of course, the spammers don't get much from this. There isn't such a thing as an "attention economy." You can't use attention as a unit of account, a medium of exchange or a store of value. Attention - like everything else that you can't build an economy upon, such as cryptocurrency - must be converted to *money* before it has economic significance. Hence that tooth-achingly trite high-tech neologism, "monetization." The monetization of attention is very poor, but AI is heavily subsidized or even free (for now), so the largest venture capital and private equity funds in the world are spending billions in public pension money and rich peoples' savings into CO2 plumes, GPUs, and botshit so that a bunch of hustle-culture weirdos in the Pacific Rim can make a few dollars by tricking people into clicking through engagement bait slop - twice. The slop isn't the point of this, but the slop does have the useful function of making the collective ideomotor response visible and thus providing a peek into our hopes and fears. What does the "egging my car" slop say about the things that we're thinking about? Lorenz cites Jamie Cohen, a media scholar at CUNY Queens, who points out that subtext of this slop is "fear and distrust in people about their neighbors." Cohen predicts that "the next trend, is going to be stranger and more violent.? This feels right to me. The corollary of mistrusting your neighbors, of course, is trusting only yourself and your family. Or, as Margaret Thatcher liked to say, "There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families." We are living in the tail end of a 40 year experiment in structuring our world as though "there is no such thing as society." We've gutted our welfare net, shut down or privatized public services, all but abolished solidaristic institutions like unions. This isn't mere aesthetics: an atomized society is *far* more hospitable to extreme wealth inequality than one in which we are all in it together. When your power comes from being a "wise consumer" who "votes with your wallet," then all you can do about the climate emergency is buy a different kind of car - you can't build the public transit system that will make cars obsolete. When you "vote with your wallet" all you can do about animal cruelty and habitat loss is eat less meat. When you "vote with your wallet" all you can do about high drug prices is "shop around for a bargain." When you vote with your wallet, all you can do when your bank forecloses on your home is "choose your next lender more carefully." Most importantly, when you vote with your wallet, you cast a ballot in an election that the people with the thickest wallets always win. No wonder those people have spent so long teaching us that we can't trust our neighbors, that there is no such thing as society, that we can't have nice things. That there is no alternative. The commercial surveillance industry *really* wants you to believe that they're good at convincing people of things, because that's a good way to sell advertising. But claims of mind-control are pretty goddamned improbable - everyone who ever claimed to have managed the trick was lying, from Rasputin to MK-ULTRA: https://pluralistic.net/HowToDestroySurveillanceCapitalism Rather than seeing these platforms as *convincing* people of things, we should understand them as discovering and reinforcing the ideology that people have been driven to by *material* conditions. Platforms like Facebook show us to one another, let us form groups that can imperfectly fill in for the solidarity we're desperate for after 40 years of "no such thing as society." The most interesting thing about "egging my car" slop is that it reveals that so many of us are convinced of two contradictory things: first, that everyone else is a monster who will turn on you for the pettiest of reasons; and second, that *we're* all the kind of people who would stick up for the victims of those monsters. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ?? Hey look at this * Pluralistic collages https://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorow/albums/72177720316719208 * The incredible reason for Disneyland's first fully air-conditioned attraction https://www.sfgate.com/disneyland/article/disneyland-attraction-walt-disney-name-19844367.php (h/t Slashdot) * MajorDom ? Your Effortlessly Simple Smart Home https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/parkerindustries/majordom-your-effortlessly-simple-smart-home ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ?? This day in history #20yrsago Disney sued by ?inventor? of FastPass system https://web.archive.org/web/20041101023537/http://www.patentlyobviousblog.com/2004/10/patent_suit_all.html #15yrsago Mickey Mouse comics drawn by concentration camp prisoner https://web.archive.org/web/20091103172853/http://www.scribd.com/doc/21860527/Horst-Rosenthal-Mickey-Mouse-in-Gurs #15yrsago UK ISP TalkTalk threatens lawsuit over 3-strikes disconnection proposal https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/oct/29/talktalk-threatens-legal-action-mandelson #15yrsago My Times editorial on British plan to cut relatives of accused infringers off from the net https://www.thetimes.com/article/denying-physics-wont-save-the-video-stars-wf52wrrs2r0 #10yrsago The rise and fall of American Hallowe?en costumes https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/10/27/359324848/witches-vampires-and-pirates-5-years-of-americas-most-popular-costumes #10yrsago Profile of MITSFS, MIT?s 65-year-old science fiction club https://web.archive.org/web/20141023191938/http://www.technologyreview.com/article/531401/60000-books-and-a-few-toy-bananas/ #10yrsago Malware authors use Gmail drafts as dead-drops to talk to bots https://www.wired.com/2014/10/hackers-using-gmail-drafts-update-malware-steal-data/ #10yrsago Verizon?s new big budget tech-news site prohibits reporting on NSA spying or net neutrality https://www.dailydot.com/debug/verizon-sugarstring-us-surveillance-net-neutrality/ #10yrsago Every artist?s ?how I made it? talk, ever https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_F9jxsfGCw #10yrago The Terrible Sea Lion: a social media parable https://wondermark.com/c/1062 #10yrsago Opsec, Snowden style https://web.archive.org/web/20141028183511/https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/10/28/smuggling-snowden-secrets/ #5yrsago Elizabeth Warren proposes a 4-year ban on government officials going to work for ?market dominant? companies https://medium.com/@teamwarren/breaking-the-political-influence-of-market-dominant-companies-8ff27e99ada0 #5yrsago Behind the scenes, ?plain? text editing is unbelievably complex and weird https://lord.io/text-editing-hates-you-too/ #5yrsago Despite denials, it?s clear that Google?s new top national security hire was instrumental to Trump?s #KidsInCages policy https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/miles-taylor-family-separation-dhs-despite-google-denial #5yrsago 70% of millennials would vote for a socialist https://victimsofcommunism.org/annual-poll/2019-annual-poll/ #5yrsago Davos in the Desert is back, and banks and hedge fund managers are flocking to Mister Bone-Saw?s side https://www.bbc.com/news/business-50219035 #5yrsago Podcast of Affordances: a new science fiction story that climbs the terrible technology adoption curve https://ia903108.us.archive.org/3/items/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_314/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_314_-Affordances.mp3 #5yrago Kindness and Wonder: Mr Rogers biography is a study in empathy and a deep, genuine love for children https://memex.craphound.com/2019/10/29/kindness-and-wonder-mr-rogers-biography-is-a-study-in-empathy-and-a-deep-genuine-love-for-children/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ?? Upcoming appearances * TusCon (Tucson), Nov 8-10 https://tusconscificon.com/ * International Cooperative Alliance (New Delhi), Nov 24 https://icanewdelhi2024.coop/welcome/pages/Programme * IA et ?merdification? d?internet: peut-on envisager un nouveau web? (Remote), Dec 12 https://www.unige.ch/comprendre-le-numerique/conferences-publiques1/cycle-5-2024-2025/ia-et-merdification-dinternet-peut-envisager-un-nouveau-web/ * ISSA-LA Holiday Celebration keynote (Los Angeles), Dec 18 https://issala.org/event/issa-la-december-18-dinner-meeting/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ?? Recent appearances * Maximum Iceland Scenario - Data Caps, 3rd Party Android Stores, Nuclear Amazon (This Week in Tech) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5MkCwktKz0 * Speciale intervista a Cory Doctorow (Digitalia) https://digitalia.fm/744/ * Was There Ever An Old, Good Internet? (David Graeber Institute) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6Jlxx5TboE ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ?? Latest books * 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 * Picks and Shovels: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books, February 2025 * Unauthorized Bread: a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2025 ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ?? Colophon Today's top sources: Currently writing: * Enshittification: a nonfiction book about platform decay for Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Today's progress: 895 words (73067 words total). * 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 FEB 2025 Latest podcast: Spill, part four (a Little Brother story) https://craphound.com/littlebrother/2024/10/28/spill-part-four-a-little-brother-story/ This work - excluding any serialized fiction - is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ?? How to get Pluralistic: Blog (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): Pluralistic.net Newsletter (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://pluralistic.net/plura-list Mastodon (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic Medium (no ads, paywalled): https://doctorow.medium.com/ Twitter (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://twitter.com/doctorow Tumblr (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/tagged/pluralistic "*When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla*" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: OpenPGP_0x9026DBBE1FC237AF.asc Type: application/pgp-keys Size: 3650 bytes Desc: OpenPGP public key URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: OpenPGP_signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 203 bytes Desc: OpenPGP digital signature URL: From doctorow at craphound.com Wed Oct 30 08:43:39 2024 From: doctorow at craphound.com (Cory Doctorow) Date: Wed, 30 Oct 2024 05:43:39 -0700 Subject: [Plura-list] AI's "human in the loop" isn't Message-ID: <4a4387c5-b173-41f7-ac21-9652dd8f545e@craphound.com> Read today's issue online at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/30/a-neck-in-a-noose/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ I'll be in Tucson, AZ from November 8-10: I'm the Guest of Honor at the Tuscon science fiction convention: https://tusconscificon.com/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ Today's links * AI's "human in the loop" isn't: A moral crumple zone, an accountability sink, but not a supervisor. * Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. * This day in history: 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019, 2023 * Upcoming appearances: Where to find me. * Recent appearances: Where I've been. * 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. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? AI's "human in the loop" isn't AI's ability to make - or assist with - important decisions is fraught: on the one hand, AI can *often* classify things very well, at a speed and scale that outstrips the ability of any reasonably resourced group of humans. On the other hand, AI is sometimes *very* wrong, in ways that can be terribly harmful. Bureaucracies and the AI pitchmen who hope to sell them algorithms are very excited about the cost-savings they could realize if algorithms could be turned loose on thorny, labor-intensive processes. Some of these are relatively low-stakes and make for an easy call: Brewster Kahle recently told me about the Internet Archive's project to scan a ton of journals on microfiche they bought as a library discard. It's pretty easy to have a high-res scanner auto-detect the positions of each page on the fiche and to run the text through OCR, but a human would still need to go through all those pages, marking the first and last page of each journal and identifying the table of contents and indexing it to the scanned pages. This is something AI apparently does *very* well, and instead of scrolling through endless pages, the Archive's human operator now just checks whether the first/last/index pages the AI identified are the right ones. A project that could have taken years is being tackled with never-seen swiftness. The operator checking those fiche indices is something AI people like to call a "human in the loop" - a human operator who assesses each judgment made by the AI and overrides it should the AI have made a mistake. "Humans in the loop" present a tantalizing solution to algorithmic misfires, bias, and unexpected errors, and so "we'll put a human in the loop" is the cure-all response to any objection to putting an imperfect AI in charge of a high-stakes application. But it's not just AIs that are imperfect. Humans are *wildly* imperfect, and one thing they turn out to be *very* bad at is supervising AIs. In a 2022 paper for *Computer Law & Security Review*, the mathematician and public policy expert Ben Green investigates the empirical limits on human oversight of algorithms: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3921216 Green situates public sector algorithms as the latest salvo in an age-old battle in public enforcement. Bureaucracies have two conflicting, irreconcilable imperatives: on the one hand, they want to be fair, and treat everyone the same. On the other hand, they want to exercise discretion, and take account of individual circumstances when administering justice. There's no way to do both of these things at the same time, obviously. But algorithmic decision tools, overseen by humans, seem to hold out the possibility of doing the impossible and having both objective fairness *and* subjective discretion. Because it is grounded in computable mathematics, an algorithm is said to be "objective": given two equivalent reports of a parent who may be neglectful, the algorithm will make the same recommendation as to whether to take their children away. But because those recommendations are then reviewed by a human in the loop, there's a chance to take account of special circumstances that the algorithm missed. Finally, a cake that can be both had, *and* eaten! For the paper, Green reviewed a long list of policies - local, national, and supra-national - for putting humans in the loop and found several common ways of mandating human oversight of AI. First, policies specify that algorithms *must* have human oversight. Many jurisdictions set out long lists of decisions that *must* be reviewed by human beings, banning "fire and forget" systems that chug along in the background, blithely making consequential decisions without anyone ever reviewing them. Second, policies specify that humans can exercise *discretion* when they override the AI. They aren't just there to catch instances in which the AI misinterprets a rule, but rather to apply human judgment to the rules' applications. Next, policies require human oversight to be "meaningful" - to be more than a rubber stamp. For high-stakes decisions, a human has to do a thorough review of the AI's inputs and output before greenlighting it. Finally, policies specify that humans *can* override the AI. This is key: we've all encountered instances in which "computer says no" and the hapless person operating the computer just shrugs their shoulders apologetically. Nothing I can do, sorry! All of this *sounds* good, but unfortunately, it doesn't work. The question of how humans in the loop *actually* behave has been thoroughly studied, published in peer-reviewed, reputable journals, and replicated by other researchers. The measures for using humans to prevent algorithmic harms represent theories, and those theories are testable, and they have been tested, and they are wrong. For example, people (including experts) are highly susceptible to "automation bias." They defer to automated systems, even when those systems produce outputs that conflict with their own expert experience and knowledge. A study of London cops found that they "overwhelmingly overestimated the credibility" of facial recognition and assessed its accuracy at 300% better than its actual performance. Experts who are put in charge of overseeing an automated system get out of practice, because they no longer engage in the routine steps that lead up to the conclusion. Presented with conclusions, rather than problems to solve, experts lose the facility and familiarity with how all the factors that need to be weighed to produce a conclusion fit together. Far from being the easiest step of coming to a decision, reviewing the final step of that decision without doing the underlying work can be *much harder* to do reliably. Worse: when algorithms are made "transparent" by presenting their chain of reasoning to expert reviewers, those reviewers become *more* deferential to the algorithm's conclusion, not less - after all, now the expert has to review not just one final conclusion, but several sub-conclusions. Even worse: when humans *do* exercise discretion to override an algorithm, it's often to inject the very bias that the algorithm is there to prevent. Sure, the algorithm might give the same recommendation about two similar parents who are facing having their children taken away, but the judge who reviews the recommendations is more likely to override it for a white parent than for a Black one. Humans in the loop experience "a diminished sense of control, responsibility, and moral agency." That means that they feel less able to override an algorithm - and they feel less morally culpable when they sit by and let the algorithm do its thing. All of these effects are persistent even when people know about them, are trained to avoid them, and are given explicit instructions to do so. Remember, the whole reason to introduce AI is because of human imperfection. Designing an AI to correct human imperfection that only works when its human overseer is perfect produces predictably bad outcomes. As Green writes, putting an AI in charge of a high-stakes decision, and using humans in the loop to prevent its harms, produces a "perverse effect": "alleviating scrutiny of government algorithms without actually addressing the underlying concerns." The human in the loop creates "a false sense of security" that sees algorithms deployed for high-stakes domains, and it shifts the responsibility for algorithmic failures to the human, creating what Dan Davies calls an "accountability sink": https://profilebooks.com/work/the-unaccountability-machine/ The human in the loop is a false promise, a "salve that enables governments to obtain the benefits of algorithms without incurring the associated harms." So why are we still talking about how AI is going to replace government and corporate bureaucracies, making decisions at machine speed, overseen by humans in the loop? Well, what if the accountability sink is a feature and not a bug. What if governments, under enormous pressure to cut costs, figure out how to also cut corners, at the expense of people with very little social capital, and blame it all on human operators? The operators become, in the phrase of Madeleine Clare Elish, "moral crumple zones": https://estsjournal.org/index.php/ests/article/view/260 As Green writes: > The emphasis on human oversight as a protective mechanism allows governments and vendors to have it both ways: they can promote an algorithm by proclaiming how its capabilities exceed those of humans, while simultaneously defending the algorithm and those responsible for it from scrutiny by pointing to the security (supposedly) provided by human oversight. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Hey look at this * EU to Apple: ?Let Users Choose Their Software?; Apple: ?Nah? https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/10/eu-apple-let-users-choose-their-software-apple-nah * The cult of the founders https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/the-cult-of-the-founders * Bruno Pontiroli?s Absurd Portraits Highlight Quirky Behavior and Zoological Buffoonery https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/10/bruno-pontiroli-histoires-naturelles-et-grotesques/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? This day in history #20yrsago William Gibson on ObL tape https://web.archive.org/web/20041016033110/https://williamgibsonbooks.com/blog/2004_10_01_archive.asp#109907889910593617 #20yrsago Apple to iPod owners: ?Eat shit and die? https://memex.craphound.com/2004/10/30/apple-to-ipod-owners-eat-shit-and-die-updated/ #15yrsago Hallowe?en is safe, your kids are safe, the only scary thing is the warnings https://www.huffpost.com/entry/as-goes-halloween-so-goes_b_340163 #15yrsago Homebrew backyard railroad recreates Disneyland https://web.archive.org/web/20091208070906/http://cptrr.webs.com/ #15yrsago Gang steals phone wires out from under English roads https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/sussex/8333774.stm #10yrsago Pizzeria asks judge to find rival?s flavor to be trademark-infringing https://www.techdirt.com/2014/10/30/pizzeria-attempts-to-trademark-flavor-pizza-yes-seriously/ #10yrsago 100K Hungarians march against Internet tax https://www.vice.com/en/article/huge-internet-tax-protests-galvanize-government-opposition-in-hungary/ #10yrsago Dissecting the arguments of liberal apologists for Obama?s surveillance and secret war https://nationalinterest.org/feature/big-brother?s-liberal-friends-11515 #10yrsago Potato-chip surveillance: once you start, you just can?t stop https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/27/stasi-style-outrages-low-spies-stoop-mi5 #5yrsago The Internet Archive?s massive repository of scanned books will help Wikipedia fight the disinformation wars https://web.archive.org/web/20191031041755/https://blog.archive.org/2019/10/29/weaving-books-into-the-web-starting-with-wikipedia/ #5yrsago With ?OK boomer,? millennials are killing intergenerational resentment https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/29/style/ok-boomer.html #5yrsago Facebook sues notorious spyware company NSO Group for 1,400 attacks on diplomats, journalists, dissidents, and government officials https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-cyber-whatsapp-nsogroup/whatsapp-sues-israels-nso-for-allegedly-helping-spies-hack-phones-around-the-world-idUSKBN1X82BE/ #5yrsago The First Scarfolk Annual: a mysterious artifact from a curiously familiar eternal grimdark 1970s https://memex.craphound.com/2019/10/30/the-first-scarfolk-annual-a-mysterious-artifact-from-a-curiously-familiar-eternal-grimdark-1970s/ #1yrago Zuck's gravity-defying metaverse money-pit https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/30/markets-remaining-irrational/#steins-law ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Upcoming appearances * TusCon (Tucson), Nov 8-10 https://tusconscificon.com/ * International Cooperative Alliance (New Delhi), Nov 24 https://icanewdelhi2024.coop/welcome/pages/Programme * IA et ?merdification? d?internet: peut-on envisager un nouveau web? (Remote), Dec 12 https://www.unige.ch/comprendre-le-numerique/conferences-publiques1/cycle-5-2024-2025/ia-et-merdification-dinternet-peut-envisager-un-nouveau-web/ * ISSA-LA Holiday Celebration keynote (Los Angeles), Dec 18 https://issala.org/event/issa-la-december-18-dinner-meeting/ ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Recent appearances * Maximum Iceland Scenario - Data Caps, 3rd Party Android Stores, Nuclear Amazon (This Week in Tech) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5MkCwktKz0 * Speciale intervista a Cory Doctorow (Digitalia) https://digitalia.fm/744/ * Was There Ever An Old, Good Internet? (David Graeber Institute) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6Jlxx5TboE ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Latest books * 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 * Picks and Shovels: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books, February 2025 * Unauthorized Bread: a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2025 ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? Colophon Today's top sources: Ellen P Goodman (https://twitter.com/ellgood). Currently writing: * Enshittification: a nonfiction book about platform decay for Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Today's progress: 756 words (73825 words total). * 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 FEB 2025 Latest podcast: Spill, part four (a Little Brother story) https://craphound.com/littlebrother/2024/10/28/spill-part-four-a-little-brother-story/ This work - excluding any serialized fiction - is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ? 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