Cory Doctorow's Blog, page 56
June 24, 2016
How to protect the future web from its founders’ own frailty
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Earlier this month, I gave the afternoon keynote at the Internet Archive’s Decentralized Web Summit, and my talk was about how the people who founded the web with the idea of having an open, decentralized system ended up building a system that is increasingly monopolized by a few companies — and how we can prevent the same things from happening next time.
The speech was very well received — it got a standing ovation — and has attracted a lot of discussion since.
Jonke Suhr has done me t...
June 20, 2016
Video: Guarding the Decentralized Web from its founders’ human frailty
Earlier this month, I gave the afternoon keynote at the Internet Archive’s Decentralized Web Summit, speaking about how the people who are building a new kind of decentralized web can guard against their own future moments of weakness and prevent themselves from rationalizing away the kinds of compromises that led to the centralization of today’s web.
The talk was very well-received — it got a standing ovation — and I’ve heard from a lot of people about it since. The video was heretofore...
June 9, 2016
How we will keep the Decentralized Web decentralized: my talk from the Decentralized Web Summit
At yesterday’s Internet Archive Decentralized Web Summit, the afternoon was given over to questions of security and policy.
I gave the opening talk, “How Stupid Laws and Benevolent Dictators can Ruin the Decentralized Web, too,” which was about “Ulysses pacts“: bargains you make with yourself when your willpower is strong to prevent giving into temptation later when you are tired or demoralized, and how these have benefited the web to date, and how new, better ones can protect the decentr...
June 7, 2016
You are not a wallet: complaining considered helpful
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My new Guardian column, It’s your duty to complain – that’s how companies improve, is a rebuttal to those who greet public complaints about businesses’ actions with, “Well, just don’t buy from them, then.”
This idea posits that your role in the market is to be a kind of ambulatory wallet, whose only options are to buy, or not to buy. But not only does complaining sometimes solve your problems, it also warns others away from bad decisions, helping better companies thrive.
Finally, some bu...
June 1, 2016
How security and privacy pros can help save the web from legal threats over vulnerability disclosure
I have a new op-ed in today’s Privacy Tech, the in-house organ of the International Association of Privacy Professionals, about the risks to security and privacy from the World Wide Web Consortium’s DRM project, and how privacy and security pros can help protect people who discover vulnerabilities in browsers from legal aggression.
I’ve got an open letter to the W3C asking it to extend its existing nonaggression policy — which prohibits members from using patents to threaten those who impl...
May 26, 2016
Revealed: the amazing cover for Walkaway, my first adult novel since 2009
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Next April, Tor Books will publish Walkaway, the first novel I’ve written specifically for adults since 2009; it’s scheduled to be their lead title for the season and they’ve hired the brilliant designer Will Staehle (Yiddish Policeman’s Union, Darker Shade of Magic) for the cover, which Tor has just revealed.
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Staehle’s cover features a die-cut dustjacket that offers a peek at the design printed on the boards beneath and highlights the blurb from Edward Snowden (!).
I’ll be going out...
May 11, 2016
O’Reilly Hardware Podcast on the risks to the open Web and the future of the Internet of Things
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I appeared on the O’Reilly Hardware Podcast this week (MP3, talking about the way that DRM has crept into all our smart devices, which compromises privacy, security and competition.
In this episode of the Hardware podcast, we talk with writer and digital rights activist Cory Doctorow. He’s recently rejoined the Electronic Frontier Foundation to fight a World Wide Web Consortium proposal that would add DRM to the core specification for HTML. When we recorded this episode with Cory, the...
May 9, 2016
Peace in Our Time: how publishers, libraries and writers could work together
Publishing is in a weird place: ebook sales are stagnating; publishing has shrunk to five major publishers; libraries and publishers are at each others’ throats over ebook pricing; and major writers’ groups are up in arms over ebook royalties, and, of course, we only have one major book retailer left — what is to be done?
In my new Locus Magazine column, “Peace in Our Time,” I propose a pair of software projects that could bring all together writers, publishers and libraries to increase c...
May 3, 2016
The open web’s guardians are acting like it’s already dead
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The World Wide Web Consortium — an influential standards body devoted to the open web — used to make standards that would let anyone make a browser that could view the whole Web; now they’re making standards that let the giant browser companies and giant entertainment companies decide which browsers will and won’t work on the Web of the future.
When you ask them why they’re doing this, they say that the companies are going to build technology that locks out new entrants no matter what th...
March 23, 2016
30% off O’Reilly’s Open Source Convention in Austin, May 16-19
O’Reilly’s venerable, essential OSCON is in Austin, Texas this year, meaning that you’ll get to combine brain-thumpingly good talks and workshops of free/open source tools and techniques with some of the world’s best BBQ, millions of bats, my favorite toy store anywhere, and one of the best indie bookstores you could hope to visit.
I’m delivering one of this year’s keynotes, and I’ll certainly be doing all of the above!
The O’Reilly folks are offering 30% off your OSCON badge when you boo...
