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Pirate Cinema

3.64 of 5 stars 3.64 · rating details · 1,906 ratings · 421 reviews

Trent McCauley is sixteen, brilliant, and obsessed with one thing: making movies on his computer by reassembling footage from popular films he downloads from the net. In near-future Britain, this is more illegal than ever. The punishment for being caught three times is to cut off your entire household from the internet for a year - no work, school, health or money benefits...more

Hardcover, Tor Teen, 384 pages

Published October 2nd 2012 by Tom Doherty

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Jun 19, 2012 Kasey rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: teen, science-fiction

Cory Doctorow is good at:

- Extrapolating current trends and creating plausible near futures from them.
- Writing about technical problems in a clear and mostly accurate way.
- Creating page turning stories.

He is terrible at:
- Being nuanced.
- Being credible about non-tech story elements.
- Avoiding sounding preachy.

Typically, with Cory you fight your way through the terrible stuff and the good stuff makes for, if not great literature, a fun read. This book, is an exception. From page 1 his preachy-n...more Cory Doctorow is good at:

- Extrapolating current trends and creating plausible near futures from them.
- Writing about technical problems in a clear and mostly accurate way.
- Creating page turning stories.

He is terrible at:
- Being nuanced.
- Being credible about non-tech story elements.
- Avoiding sounding preachy.

Typically, with Cory you fight your way through the terrible stuff and the good stuff makes for, if not great literature, a fun read. This book, is an exception. From page 1 his preachy-ness is off the charts. This is a book about copyright infringement and how bad the big bad content producers are. Our hero (Trent aka Cecil B DeVil), an under age runaway video remix artist is persecuted from the first chapter for downloading copyrighted material, for only the most innocent reason of "making art". He is "compelled" to do this, yet the only way his art manifests is in editing scenes from other people's material. Luckily, our runaway, after spending 1 whole night, on the streets of London, falls in with a whole troupe of colorful, witty, street smart, and intelligent other street people. They show him the ropes so he can eat gourmet food, get computers, and live in a cool abandoned pub all for free. Glad our hero doesn't starve. When he does encounter street people who don't fit into his techno-anarchist tribe, even if they have mental problems, they are harmless. Even the drug gangs are friendly. We never encounter real life issues that are endemic with runaways, untreated mental problems, drug abuse (these characters only use drugs responsibly), casual violence, or sexual predation. Oh did, I mention he finds a girlfriend that is smarter and more attractive than him, street wise & politically savvy, who comes from an upper class family that has no problem with their daughter sleeping with a homeless kid?

If only the big bad copyright laws and the evil American corporations that push them hadn't intruded on poor Cecil's lost boy utopia.

And this is real problem with this story. Copyright law in the age of the internet, is a very real, and very complicated problem. As usual, Cory does a good job at pointing out how some trends in the laws now will lead to obvious technical problems (and more obvious hacks to circumvent them). What doesn't come across is any discussion of the subtleties of the problem. Every bad thing about copyright is pointed out without any thought or discussion about the good things. All of the copyright infringers are motivated by pure artistic spirit and never use the infringed material for questionable motives.

To have a whole book devoted to this, and to never have a character infringe on copyright due to greed, or to misappropriate someones art to create a political message repugnant to it's creator is irresponsible. Nearly every person whose thought about this issue agrees that copyright law is being abused right now. That doesn't mean that there is no value to content creators (Cory's sainted "artists") in having responsible copyright protection and that viewpoint is never presented in any way. The sad thing is, Cory clearly understands this discussion and didn't have it in this novel because either he A) was too insecure in his arguments, B) didn't trust himself to write them well or C) didn't trust his readers to understand the nuance. In any case it is sad and not worthy of him.

Did I mention it wasn't much of a page tuner?(less)

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Oct 09, 2012 Stefan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: advance-reading-copy, young-adult, science-fiction, far-beyond-reality-review, www-tor-com-review

Trent McCauley is a talented teenager: his main hobby, more an obsession really, is creating movie clips by downloading, remixing and reassembling footage of his favorite actor. Problem is, those movies tend to be copyrighted, which means Trent’s innocuous pastime involves breaking the law on an ongoing basis. All of this goes well, until it suddenly doesn’t: there’s a knock on the door, and a policeman informs the McCauley family that, because of repeated copyright infringements, their internet...more

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Jun 07, 2012 Lisa (libraryink) rated it 5 of 5 stars

Cory Doctorow knocks another one out of the park in Pirate Cinema. Here he mixes existing (and already frightening) laws in England punishing those who download copyrighted music or videos by cutting off the family's Internet access with some that haven't yet come to pass but certainly could. I hope this book becomes a wake up call — we all have to remember to stand up for what's right and not just complacently go along with new laws because the rich and powerful say so. Well done, Doctorow.

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Jan 09, 2013 Margaret Killjoy rated it 4 of 5 stars

The book takes place in a near-future London only the tiniest bit more dystopian than what we have now, and it’s about a young runaway who finds camaraderie, love, dumpster-diving, and meaningful ways to apply his talents to direct action social change.

Cory Doctorow has an amazing talent for making socially-useful fiction. And in this case, he’s written an immersive book that shows quite clearly the ways that legal and illegal activism work hand-in-hand. Of course, I personally found the direct...more

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Dec 05, 2012 Mely marked it as borrowed

Shelves: science-fiction, writer-white, young-adult

I love fan vidding and therefore already know (a) I will feel compelled to read this; (b) I will not like it.

Maybe I am underestimating Doctorow. Maybe the book will deal with his usual property and copyright concerns without misrepresenting an existing subculture or attributing a predominantly female practice to male practitioners. Maybe I will like it. Maybe I will dislike it, but for purely aesthetic reasons.

I am not optimistic.

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Feb 24, 2013 Maddi Sojourner rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, teen

3.5 stars -- not as good as his last two.

There are things Cory Doctorow does very well. He's written some kick-ass teen SF tales (Little Brother, For the Win). He's advocated passionately for privacy on the Internet and against restrictions by entertainment companies. In this book he tried to put these two things together, resulting in a fairly interesting and well-built universe with a bit more politics than most teens may care for. Pirate Cinema is set in a future England where the Entertainme...more 3.5 stars -- not as good as his last two.

There are things Cory Doctorow does very well. He's written some kick-ass teen SF tales (Little Brother, For the Win). He's advocated passionately for privacy on the Internet and against restrictions by entertainment companies. In this book he tried to put these two things together, resulting in a fairly interesting and well-built universe with a bit more politics than most teens may care for. Pirate Cinema is set in a future England where the Entertainment companies have pretty much bought the politicians in England and have complete sway on use of the Internet. People who download illegal content can have their internet connection taken away immediately. Trent, a Northerner who runs away to London (after losing his family's internet), gets deeper into the underground movement against abusively restrictive content laws, while his girlfriend tries working through the system. Politicians are going to approve an even more draconian law, leading to arrest for illegal downloads.

Other than the lecturing on copyright issues, the story of Trent's learning how to be a homeless teen in London is interesting. I was surprised he didn't face more adversity in doing so; he has a very fortunate meet-up with the most systematic beggar to trawl the Tube. (Coming up with marketing strategies to maximize begging income was actually pretty funny.) There's an appropriate level of tech fast-forward given that the story takes place sometime in the second half of the 21st century, including West Nile mosquitoes in London. The ending is a little (not a lot) unbelievable, another reason I took points off. It is realistic that the laws would get out of control when one party has too much power and influence, and perhaps the brazen unfairness of it will keep otherwise apolitical teens engaged. I certainly wanted to keep reading each time I took a break.

I'm reading Rapture of the Nerds now, right after I finished this one. Very different book, and not just because Charlie Stross is the co-author. This one's not a YA.(less)

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Feb 24, 2013 Ted rated it 3 of 5 stars

Cory Doctorow's Pirate Cinema is a future where giant media conglomerates coerce governments to outlaw the downloading of content that they control. It is a world where the internet so pervades daily lives that losing access to it has dire consequences.

Doctorow's protagonist Trent McCauley causes his family to be denied internet through his constant downloading and rejigging of video content. The sixteen year old, from northern England, sets out for London's lights where he learns how to beg for...more

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May 13, 2013 prk rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Trent McCauley is a British, teen, fan vidder, making his own movies from the components of other, copyright films. English copyright law has been bought by the corporations and copyright infringement is punished with a year's suspension of Internet.

When Trent's downloading causes the family's Internet access to be revoked, his father loses his telecommuting job, his mother can't access her online health benefits, and his sister can't effectively study for her A level exams. Trent flees the hou...more

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May 03, 2013 Susan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult

There's a great story in there. Not just a good one, a great one--so I want to give this book more stars, I really do, but I feel like someone has to say this: Cory Doctorow needs a firmer hand when it comes to editing. I expect editors must rather be afraid of him, assuming they'll be charged with censorship, but I hope someone eventually makes a stab at this because it would make a real difference for him--and his books.

Pirate Cinema takes a page from the same book as Little Brother by followi...more There's a great story in there. Not just a good one, a great one--so I want to give this book more stars, I really do, but I feel like someone has to say this: Cory Doctorow needs a firmer hand when it comes to editing. I expect editors must rather be afraid of him, assuming they'll be charged with censorship, but I hope someone eventually makes a stab at this because it would make a real difference for him--and his books.

Pirate Cinema takes a page from the same book as Little Brother by following the adventures of young hackers and renegades trying to challenge the oppressive authority of the state (in this case London's copyright laws and the big shot movie and music production people who drive their creation and enforcement). Trent, who later styles himself Cecil B. DeVil, runs away from home when his forays into remixing movie clips end up costing his family their Internet access, and luckily runs into some other young and savvy types on the streets of London who help him survive on the street and inspire him with the confidence to go bigger with his mashup movie dreams than he could have ever expected, putting him under the glare of the authorities and heavy hitters, but also giving him a chance to get unimaginable fame. The biggest difference to me was that Little Brother read like a cautionary tale and this is like a tech-age fairy tale dedicated to the remix, mashup, and splice hacker artists and torrenters of the world.

There's some real drama, adventure--and serious meaty issues at play here, but Doctorow's storytelling is so entirely unreined in that the pacing is not very good. You keep losing momentum and getting caught in side episodes. He needs someone like Trent to come in and do his work--pulling out the most poignant and powerful pieces and bring them forward to tie them together. Also, something that I feel like someone has to say...because of the rambling, due to the lack of attention to those other things, I feel like Doctorow's novels are more and more feeling like a slightly novelized version of propaganda brochures for the hacker movement more than anything else. I can't even tell you how many long impassioned diatribes/arguments there are about creativity and the hazards of overzealous copyright enforcement---literally full-on speeches, as if Doctorow was trying to help his readers cram for a visit to their local congressman or get ready for a rally. He makes some good points, but I feel like it's incredibly heavy-handed and unfair to his readers who would also like a good story. It's there, but you have to unpack it from rhetoric first. I respect the man a lot, but I think he's becoming more of a politician than a writer. This might be a good thing for the world, but not as good of a development for his books. His true believers will continue to read, but that's really preaching to the choir. If he wants to really win converts, he's going to need to work on his storytelling, not just his rebuttals.

In the place of that here, I felt like he used cheap tactics to gloss over the flaws and try to keep his readers lured in to the premise. This is when the fairy tale comes in. Doctorow tells them what they want to hear: the pixie dust magical thinking version of what happens when a kid leaves everything behind with no plan but the right kind of hacker mentality. Trent and his gang manage to find a fantastic place to squat in (which they manage to even get sort of sanctioned) and have fantastic, epic feasts they scavenge from the local gourmet markets and food stands whenever they're not hanging out with their computers smoking pot. True, the food comes from dumpsters, but the way it's explained this is explained away almost to nothing. Most of the food is just short of pristine. Everything goes their way. Trent gets help from trustworthy folk almost immediately after becoming homeless, he gets a hot brilliant girlfriend with cool and understanding parents, everyone is safe. Everyone is well fed--better than the average person, even--as Trent discovers when he visits home. Everyone can get drugs easily whenever they want with no consequences and without having it ever interfere with their work/mission. Even though they have major cleanup to do at the squat, they eventually turn it into a pretty sweet pad, stolen electricity and all, and they find ways to finesse panhandling so it's lucrative enough to earn them so much extra that they can pass the overflow along to homeless people who are actually doing poorly. If that isn't enough, if they want to do all that and still get into a fantastic college, which is totally optional--if they want to, it's no biggie. Numerous times Trent literally strolls around his squat lost in an almost drunken glow about how great he has it...as a homeless teenager in London. I get that Doctorow wants to get the idea out there that there are a lot of different ways to live, that it's entirely possible for people to live off the grid, but I'll admit that it doesn't sit entirely comfortably with me to see teenage homelessness so glamorized--or at least idealized--to such an extent. And even though Trent does eventually feel guilt and obligation to his family, and reconnects with them things are going so well for him in his new life, I feel like it doesn't even feel entirely credible. Why would it? Adults are all enemies. His old life only kept him back. One thing you have to give Doctorow, though...he never pretends that he's about making anyone feel comfortable. (less)

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Apr 21, 2013 Christophe Ang rated it 4 of 5 stars

The novel revolves around the main character Trent McCauley in a near-future time period in Britain. In this near-future, the internet is ever so powerful and so is the parliament. At this time, it has become like big brother and if you are caught three times doing something illegal online, your whole household's internet is shut down for an entire year with no health, money, or educational benefits. Trent believes that he is above this and embarks on completing his ever-so important montage vid...more

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Apr 07, 2013 Cameron rated it 4 of 5 stars

Pirate Cinema is a novel set in near-future England that examines the evils of internet censorship and anti-piracy laws. Essentially, it's a slippery slope argument that if some laws are passed infringing internet freedom, more will be passed, becoming increasingly draconian without effect - like the war on drugs in the US over the last 30 years, but worse. Ruining lives, futures, and families at a high cost to the government, all to protect the interests of the rich media tycoons who cling to t...more

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Apr 05, 2013 Dawn rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: humble-bundle, near-future-sf

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. It was a romp and bordered on unbelievability at times (okay, fine it crossed the border and gave it the finger a few times) but it had a good heart and the story held together for me while Cory pushed his agenda.

I would recommend this for just a fun romp if you aren't completely bought into the idea that illegal downloading of shows is Theft and every pirated action is a lost sale. It is a hero's journey, with Oliver Twist portions. I also think it is a good pri...more I enjoyed this book quite a bit. It was a romp and bordered on unbelievability at times (okay, fine it crossed the border and gave it the finger a few times) but it had a good heart and the story held together for me while Cory pushed his agenda.

I would recommend this for just a fun romp if you aren't completely bought into the idea that illegal downloading of shows is Theft and every pirated action is a lost sale. It is a hero's journey, with Oliver Twist portions. I also think it is a good primer for anyone who doesn't understand why we get worked up about SOPA/PIPA etc.

I'm spoilering the below not because of spoilers but because it is more personal examination of DRM/Piracy in light of Pirate Cinema than it is an actual review or spoilers.

(view spoiler)(less)

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Mar 24, 2013 Elameno rated it 3 of 5 stars

The writing in this book didn't impress me that much. It felt rushed in a lot of places, too slow in others, and overall kind of haphazardly stitched together. Basically, it was a little too obvious to me that the plot and characters were merely a vehicle for the author to give us his opinions on copyright law.

On the plus side, I always find Cory Doctorow's opinions interesting, his portrayals of the near-future realistic and well-grounded, and I always learn new things about technology and comp...more

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Mar 20, 2013 Josh rated it 3 of 5 stars

I genuinely enjoy most of Cory Doctrow's work. He can sometimes delve a little too deeply into technical desriptions of computers, networking, the financial market, etc. Luckily this was not a problem in this book.
The story takes place in an all too plausible dystopian future that struck me as something of a prelude to 'V for Vendetta.' The film, music, and gaming industries have lobbied hard enough to control copyright legislation and it is an extremely punishable crime to illegally download me...more

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Mar 16, 2013 Jack rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sf

Cory Doctorow is deeply concerned about how the corporate world is attempting to lock down everything it can identify as "intellectual property" and get us all to be good little consumers. This runs directly against the creative human impulse. Pirate Cinema is a sort of morality play, with the hero and his friends fighting valiantly - and with somewhat improbable success - against the forces of society which want "property" reserved for those who already have money and power - even when the prop...more

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Mar 11, 2013 elizabeth tobey rated it 2 of 5 stars

I liken Pirate Cinema to Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand: Atlas was my favorite book during my childhood because Rand crafted an interesting story whose characters I enjoyed following, however I did not buy into her philosophy and in fact found that the clunky repetition hampered an otherwise interesting tale.

Pirate Cinema is the same: a good story (albeit quite unbelievable - man, I want to be a teen who runs away and somehow ends up in a squat without fear of being evicted, surrounded by other home...more

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Mar 07, 2013 Verse rated it 4 of 5 stars

I found it a little unlikely sometimes that the protagonist, Cecil, managed to run away to London and not end up addicted/abused/beaten. Maybe there are some rose-tinted glasses on what homelessness can really be like. Even the hardcore tramps are painted in a sympathetic way (and the London cab drivers). Skip diving is also a lot less pleasant than portrayed, plus store employees tend to get the really good stuff before it reaches the skips.

I'm not 100% but I think Cecil's art - remixing a fam...more

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Feb 24, 2013 Jana rated it 4 of 5 stars

Pirate Cinema

Actual rating 3-3.5 stars, +0.5 Doctorow fangirl bonus added

Having re-read Little Brother a few months before starting Pirate Cinema and finding it just as enticing and engrossing as the first time around, this book had its competition cut out for it. Poor book!

It took me quite a while to get into this. Up until around page 150 I was undecided whether to read on at all, which was mostly due to the fact that I kept comparing >Pirate Cinema with Little Brother. All the similaritie...more

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Feb 22, 2013 Jess rated it 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book, though it's not my usual style of dystopic story. I love all things dystopic and I love first person narratives and sub-culture, but I'm largely naive to internet communities and technologies. This book was entertaining while making me think a lot about piracy laws and, in general, the grey-ness of trying to define concepts like property and creativity. Sometimes the pace of this book was a bit of a downer for me. I felt it constantly revved and died, revved and died, somewh...more

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Feb 01, 2013 Rosalia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013, audiobooks, dystopias, young-adult

What an amazing and terrifying book. Trent is a 16 year old boy obsessed with making movies be editing together clips from other films. He downloads clips from online all the time. Unfortunately this is a few years in the future and the internet is more heavily policed than ever and the major film companies have bought laws where people are heavily policed and punished for downloading. Trent's downloading gets his families internet cut off for a year. His father can no longer work, his mother ca...more

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Jan 15, 2013 Linsey Duncan rated it 1 of 5 stars

Topical: A discussion about fair use and how it relates to art. How fanfiction, remixes, commentary, satire feeds into the culture that gave it life, and how the Internet speeds up the whole process. Also topical: How far can piracy really be classed as theft, is it worth prosecuting, and does protecting copyright give corporations too much power over a network that does not belong to them, and what about otherwise unavailable/very rare/abandoned media, etc.

These are all dense, complex discussio...more Topical: A discussion about fair use and how it relates to art. How fanfiction, remixes, commentary, satire feeds into the culture that gave it life, and how the Internet speeds up the whole process. Also topical: How far can piracy really be classed as theft, is it worth prosecuting, and does protecting copyright give corporations too much power over a network that does not belong to them, and what about otherwise unavailable/very rare/abandoned media, etc.

These are all dense, complex discussions. Pirate Cinema, for my tastes, treats these issues very superficially. Sure, by painting a world where copyright laws and anti-piracy laws are draconian and media moguls have all the power, we get a nice worst case scenario and might step back and go ‘yeah, piracy really isn’t the end of the world, chill out, evil corporations,’ but Doctorow protests too much by playing that only too-big-to-care corporations are even remotely impacted by piracy. It’s one thing to posit that if you buy it, you can use it how you like, and this includes fair use like cutting and remixing. It’s another thing to essentially posit that Internet users have the right to download whatever they want for free and there’s something Robin Hoodish about it, etc. Not all media is created by large corporations and there are such things as content creators who do make income off of sales. “If I want a piece of entertainment, I should have it, right now, and for nothing,” is bound to come off a /little/ entitled.

This "if I want it, I got it" philosophy is also reflected in the scattered bits of book that don’t directly relate to digital piracy. Our hero lives in a hazy wish-fulfillment world where any homeless person can live pretty posh off of dumpsters and abandoned pubs, if they’re only clever (he’s ‘pirating’ discarded goods and properties, get it?). He gets the best weed and the best parties. Everyone thinks his remixes are just amazing. Anyone who doesn’t think they're pure art (and who isn’t representing an evil corporation) is quickly convinced otherwise. If our hero wants something, he gets it (with one epilogue exception, which I guess I won’t spoil) with, at most, some qualifications or some mild delays. Even the courtroom judge thinks our hero Trent is terribly precious, and this is precisely what drove me up the wall about Kvothe in Name of the Wind. Only Name of the Wind had some actual stakes.

And this is my ultimate problem with Pirate Cinema. I don’t mind fiction with a message. Most of the books I love have a message or several. But I think the story, and the message, would be a lot more effective if there was more of an actual story. It all begins promisingly enough with our hero getting his family cut off from the Internet due to his piracy and running away so he can practice his ~art~ without ~hurting anyone~. Sarcastic tildes aside, a story about Trent having to actually suffer more than an initial chapter or two would have given the thesis more heft. Seriously, “prospect of two weeks without Internet” should never make a list of “major obstacles protagonist must face.” And I'm saying that as someone who just went two weeks without Internet.(less)

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Jan 15, 2013 Benjamin Strozykowski rated it 5 of 5 stars

'Pirate Cinema' is one of those books that is pretty much impossible to put down. I spent 3 sleepless nights reading through this, after purchasing it through the Humble eBook Bundle, and I can easily say that it was worth the tired feeling I had the following days.

Set in the not-too-distant future, this book is exciting, thought provoking, and becomes a sort of "call to arms" for our generation and our children's generation.

It's rare for me to find a book nowadays which gives me that feeling of...more

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Jan 13, 2013 Bettie marked it as to-read

Shelves: tbr-busting-2013

Pirate Cinema
by Cory Doctorow

Trent McCauley is sixteen, brilliant, and obsessed with one thing: making movies on his computer by reassembling footage from popular films he downloads from the net. In the dystopian near-future Britain where Trent is growing up, this is more illegal than ever; the punishment for being caught three times is that your entire household’s access to the internet is cut off for a year, with no appeal.

Trent's too clever for that too happen. Except it does, and it nearly d...more

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Jan 10, 2013 Nathaniel rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: politics, sci-fi

The best thing I can say about Pirate Cinema is that it was cute.

What you have in this volume is polished formulas and political preachifying. The main point is that copyright laws are being abused by mean, evil corporation and it's a terrible moral outrage and affects us all, even if we can't see it yet. OK, I agree, but it's a bit like writing a political screed denouncing fascism. Who, exactly, is your audience?

To serve as a vehicle for this story we get a completely ordinary young teenager w...more

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Jan 03, 2013 Peter rated it 4 of 5 stars

I have been meaning to read a book by Cory Doctorow and after catching him on a recent podcast episode of Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy, I decided to give Pirate Cinema a try.

Doctorow is outspoken in liberalizing copyright laws and this novel gets right to the heart of this matter. It features a sixteen-year-old named Trent McCauley, living in Britain, who breaks anti-piracy laws by downloading movie clips to his computer hard drive. His hobby is to splice these clips together to make a mishmash mo...more I have been meaning to read a book by Cory Doctorow and after catching him on a recent podcast episode of Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy, I decided to give Pirate Cinema a try.

Doctorow is outspoken in liberalizing copyright laws and this novel gets right to the heart of this matter. It features a sixteen-year-old named Trent McCauley, living in Britain, who breaks anti-piracy laws by downloading movie clips to his computer hard drive. His hobby is to splice these clips together to make a mishmash movie of doctored Hollywood movies and show them on YouTube-like channels.

His punishment for his crime is that his family’s internet is revoked for one year. This has terrible consequences for his family — his father no longer can work, his mother no longer can get the medical treatment she needs, and his scholarly sister begins to fail her classes. Humiliated for destroying his family’s posterity, Trent runs away to London.

In London, he befriends another homeless boy named Pip, who teaches him how to get food and find shelter. This friendship leads Trent into an underground society where purveying mishmash films is commonplace. He finds himself at home, creating videos for the pirate cinema with a grand vision of toppling the oppressive laws. Can he stop the law before the law stops him?

When I first picked this novel up, I had no idea it was written for the YA market. YA is not really my thing and I typically only read the mega-popular books (e.g. Twilight, The Hunger Games) or authors that pique my interest (e.g. Paulo Bacigalupi’s Ship Breaker). I will say that reading through Pirate Cinema works on an adult fiction level just as well as YA.

One can’t help but be reminded of authors like Ayn Rand, who use fiction as a vehicle to distribute their ideas. For some, this may be a turn-off, but I actually enjoyed reading Ayn Rand’s fiction (The Fountainhead, in particular). Likewise, while Pirate Cinema may be a bit preachy on the surface, the story and characters are compelling enough that it often goes unnoticed.

What worked well in the novel was Doctorow’s unveiling of a previously unknown niche of society to me — patrons of the pirate cinema. I wasn’t familiar with such a hobby and it was interesting to be drawn into a world of people demonstrating so much passion for their art. Trent (who later calls himself Cecil B. DeMille) rises from sleeping in a homeless shelter to stardom and is the target of police raids while winning the affections of an attractive teen named 26 (she goes by Twenty for short — something I suppose a teen would think is pretty clever).

Yes, a lot of the consequences suffered in the novel seem a bit severe (such as the calamities his family suffers without the — *gasp* — internet at home or Trent’s happenstance falling into a group of like-minded individuals in urban London). Regardless, it still is a fun romp through the sewers and abandoned houses of the city.

Pirate Cinema is a good read with likable characters. The plot is a bit contrived and teeters at the edge of the suspension of disbelief, but it still makes for an interesting, quickly-moving story.(less)

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Dec 31, 2012 Hollowspine rated it 5 of 5 stars

In the summary this book is described as a dystopia. Are we living in a dystopia currently? Perhaps some would think so, and perhaps with only a few changes, such as those happening in Doctorow's fictional England, more would join that opinion. The story revolves around Trent McCauley a pretty normal kid, he's obsessed with mashing footage from films on his computer, and spends most of his time downloading and organizing clips on his computer.

Normal, except that what he's doing is illegal. Downl...more

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Dec 28, 2012 Ranting Dragon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: janea

http://www.rantingdragon.com/review-o...

Cory Doctorow is almost as well known for his blog and internet activism as he is for his speculative fiction. So it’s no surprise that he combines the two in his latest release for youth audiences, Pirate Cinema.

Sixteen-year-old Trent McCauley loves creating illegal films by editing together clips from other people’s work. Unfortunately for him, in his near-future Great Britain the penalties for illegal downloading are harsh. When his entire family is cut...more http://www.rantingdragon.com/review-o...

Cory Doctorow is almost as well known for his blog and internet activism as he is for his speculative fiction. So it’s no surprise that he combines the two in his latest release for youth audiences, Pirate Cinema.

Sixteen-year-old Trent McCauley loves creating illegal films by editing together clips from other people’s work. Unfortunately for him, in his near-future Great Britain the penalties for illegal downloading are harsh. When his entire family is cut off from the net (and therefore their access to jobs, social welfare programs, and school), Trent runs away to London. Needless to say, he’s got a lot of growing up to do, and a lot of thinking about how the world works and how he wants to change it.

Very near future
I may not be as much of an internet activist as Doctorow is, and I’m not up to date on current UK internet laws, but there’s a lot in this book that feels eerily close to laws that either have already been passed or have been proposed in the US. It was actually hard for me to feel the ‘near future’ dystopia of Pirate Cinema. Doctorow has done a simply superb job anchoring his book in current reality, so much so that it almost reads as contemporary fiction. This gives Pirate Cinema a lot of power, because unlike several popular teen dystopian novels, Trent and his world are very easy to relate to. This takes an immense amount of skill, and is the biggest testament to Doctorow’s writerly chops in this book.

Screw the man! Save the empire!
In the mass of life-and-death teen dystopian novels crowding our shelves today, it was really nice to find a throwback style story of a group of teens doing teenage things to fight back against the system. Trent and his buddies don’t have to kill anyone or beat people up, and their lives are never in danger. Don’t get me wrong, they always have something to lose, but they face landing in jail rather than death. They fight back using some very creative civil disobedience, and really do use the system against itself instead of moving outside of the system to utterly destroy it. While Trent does leave his parents’ house, it’s because he feels deep guilt over what has befallen them because of his actions. They didn’t kick him out, and they aren’t going to disown him if he ever decides to go back. The adults that are present in Pirate Cinema tend to be smart and supportive, giving excellent advice and generally not being people Trent and his friends need to hide from.

Warning: soapbox!
So, Doctorow has an agenda in this book, and it’s hard to miss even when just reading the title. There is a lot of exposé where a character is explaining how the various laws and technology to enforce those laws work to Trent. There were several places in the book where I just sighed and thought, “Here we go again,” because Doctorow really does hit you over the head with a clue-by-four to pound in his message. Granted, I’m more educated about internet laws than the average person, but the sheer amount of soapboxing in this book pushed me out of the story overall. Which is a shame, because Pirate Cinema is a good story. However, I can see that, for Doctorow, the story is secondary to the message.

Why you should read this book?
Pirate Cinema is a fun teen near-future dystopian, and when was the last time you heard that? The message is clear, and it is an important one not just for teens but for all of us. Doctorow gives us a very bleak picture of what can happen when the financial well-being of a few gets in the way of the good of all. If you’re not familiar with internet and copyright laws, no matter where you live, this is an excellent and entertaining way to educate yourself. Best of all, I don’t have to give out any ‘content may not be suitable’ warnings. This is a solid teen fiction appropriate for that target audience (twelve or thirteen and up).(less)

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Dec 27, 2012 Matija rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi, urban-fiction, kindle, humble-bundle

I really dig Cory Doctorow. He is fighting the good fight on behalf of us all. He is one of the few individuals in the world who has the clout to appear in mainstream media in order to talk about copyright issues, a task which would otherwise be left completely in the hands of bigcorp mouthpieces. This is why I support his work in every way possible and also why I think this book is a must read if you care about these issues (and if you don't, you must be living under a rock).

However, his writin...more I really dig Cory Doctorow. He is fighting the good fight on behalf of us all. He is one of the few individuals in the world who has the clout to appear in mainstream media in order to talk about copyright issues, a task which would otherwise be left completely in the hands of bigcorp mouthpieces. This is why I support his work in every way possible and also why I think this book is a must read if you care about these issues (and if you don't, you must be living under a rock).

However, his writing leaves quite a bit to be desired, as far as novels go anyways, as his articles are usually quite lucid and to the point. But perhaps that is part of the problem - in fiction, you need more subtlety, something that is sorely lacking in this overview of what society would be like if big media corporations got their way on copyright issues. Now, admittedly, this is partly due to the fact that the narrator is the protagonist itself, a British teenager called Trent who ends up on the wrong side of an insane copyright law, which gets his family disconnected from the internet with incredibly dire consequences. His father loses his telecommuting job, mom can no longer apply for social programs from home and his brilliant sister is unable to do research for school properly and is propelled on a path of mediocrity. Trent leaves home out of shame and begins squatting in London, where he meets a couple of friends who share his view. Maybe they can do something about this whole mess...

Obviously, from his standpoint the issue is completely black and white - the other side (the copyright enforcers and the companies who buy them) are complete bad guys with no redeemable features whatsoever. And while I kind of agree with that world view myself, perhaps a slightly harder effort put into explaining or at least presenting the other side of the issue would be of a benefit to the reader, unless your entire goal is to preach to the choir. And at times it all does sound kind of preachy.

There are other minor annoying things, like the fact that all the women in Pirate Cinema are completely brilliant and super cool to boot, while most of the guys are complete bunglers. Well, maybe that's how it is in the real world after all.

Doctorow, on the other hand, excels in other things. I think his depiction of society under such laws is not too far off, if not darn right spot on. Also, obviously he is an internet age adept and his descriptions of technical issues are credible and exact as far as those that already exist are concerned and plausible for made-up stuff.

Now if he could just add some nuance and depth both to his characters and his issues, we'd have a voice of the internet generation on our hands, folks.(less)

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Dec 14, 2012 Rebecca rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

This is every bit as much a polemic as anything Ayn Rand ever wrote. The saving grace, though, is that Doctorow's characters are sympathetic people and Doctorow himself has an actual sense of humor.

While I don't agree with all of Cory Doctorow's positions, I do lean sympathetic to them. His personal hobbyhorse is the mess that is our current IP system. Here, he sets up a strawman of an entertainment industry with even more sweeping powers than it currently has, and then sets up his plucky protag...more

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Dec 14, 2012 Lissa rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: listened-to-it

Cory Doctorow = Awesome.

Technology = Complicated.

Being a Teenager = Always Plot-worthy.

For a novel that is on it's surface about a teenage boy obsessed with making video mashups of clips starring a fictional movie star, it spends most of it's time on other things. Many other things. Because life isn't all about one thing, even when you are obsessed.

While checking to see who the fictional movie star was named after--because I just knew it had to be someone Cory Doctorow thought was worth idolizin...more

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Book Club for Fun...: Is the atmosphere of Pirate Cinema one of mild dystopia, or does it reflect our nightmare present?	1	3	Jan 10, 2013 07:33am

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About Cory Doctorow

Canadian blogger, journalist and science fiction author who serves as co-editor of the blog Boing Boing.

He is an activist in favor of liberalizing copyright laws and a proponent of the Creative Commons organization, using some of their licenses for his books.

Some common themes of his work include digital rights management, file sharing, Disney, and post-scarcity economics.

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