How to screw up a whistleblower law: We want kingpins, not powerless underlings.

https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/112275437540814211

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Cory Doctorow

2024-04-15 13:20:18

Corporate crime is notoriously underpoliced and underprosecuted. Mostly, that's because we just choose not to do anything about it. American corporations commit crimes at 20X the rate of real humans, and their crimes are far worse than any crime committed by a human, but they are almost never prosecuted:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/12/no-criminals-no-crimes/#get-out-of-jail-free-card

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Pluralistic: 12 Oct 2021 – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

^{pluralistic.net}

#20yrsago Why national ID cards make us less safe https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/2004/04/a_national_id_card_w.html

#20yrsago EFF guide to Gmail privacy https://web.archive.org/web/20040516090804/https://blogs.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/001425.php#001425

#20yrsago Stephenson’s money-centric interview on Wired News https://web.archive.org/web/20040510183726/http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,63050,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1

#15yrsago Somali pirates versus European toxic-waste dumpers https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-you-are-being-lied-to-about-pirates-1225817.html

#15yrsago If you lose your Amazon account, your Kindle loses functionality https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44350&highlight=amazon+banning

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#15yrsago Secretive US prisons hold “terrorists” including animal rights activists and people who gave to the wrong charity http://www.greenisthenewred.com/blog/communication-management-units-mcgowan/1747/

#15yrsago Amazon explains cataloging error that banished queer books to “adult” purgatory https://www.latimes.com/archives/blogs/technology-blog/story/2009-04-13/amazon-begins-to-re-rank-affected-adult-books-theories-swirl

#15yrsago Texas lawmaker: Chinese Americans should change names so “Americans” can handle them https://web.archive.org/web/20090410142836/https://thinkprogress.org/2009/04/09/brown-asian-names/

5/

#15yrsago John McDaid’s “(Nothing But) Flowers”, sweet and haunting sf story https://web.archive.org/web/20090414052546/http://www.torvex.com/jmcdaid/node/984

#15yrsago Terrible anti-piracy ads from the past 15 years https://www.theguardian.com/media/pda/2009/apr/08/piracy-piracy

#10yrsago Study: American policy exclusively reflects desires of the rich; citizens’ groups largely irrelevant https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/testing-theories-of-american-politics-elites-interest-groups-and-average-citizens/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B

#10yrsago HOWTO buy your way out of a California speeding ticket https://priceonomics.com/can-you-buy-a-license-to-speed/

6/

#10yrsago Japanese game-show asks celebs to eat household objects that may or may not be chocolates https://kotaku.com/can-you-tell-whats-chocolate-and-what-isnt-asks-japa-1496174116

#5yrsago The #ShellPapers: crowdsourcing analysis of all correspondence between Shell and the Dutch government https://www.ftm.nl/dossier/shell-papers

#5yrsago Air tanker drops are often useless for fighting wildfires, but politicians order them because they make good TV https://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-wildfires29-2008jul29-story.html

7/

#5yrsago USA today feels like the last days of the Soviet Union https://eand.co/how-american-collapse-resembles-soviet-collapse-94773b44fe17

#5yrsago EFF to Facebook: enforce your rules banning cops from creating sockpuppet accounts and be transparent when you catch cops doing it https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/04/facebook-must-take-these-four-steps-counter-police-sock-puppets

#5yrsago Not just Apple: Microsoft has been quietly lobbying to kill Right to Repair bills https://medium.com/u-s-pirg/microsoft-named-as-stopping-right-to-repair-in-washington-b880bf4ad052

#5yrsago Silicon Valley’s techie uprisings reveal growing support for socialism in tech https://www.salon.com/2019/04/11/silicon-valley-once-a-bastion-of-libertarianism-sees-a-budding-socialist-movement/

8/

#5yrsago Investors controlling $3B in Facebook stock demand Zuckerberg’s ouster, and they will lose https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-investors-will-vote-to-oust-mark-zuckerberg-as-chairman-2019-4

#5yrsago Starz abuses the DMCA to remove EFF’s tweet about Starz abusing the DMCA https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/04/effs-tweet-about-overzealous-dmca-takedown-now-subject-overzealous-takedown

#5yrsago RIP, science fiction and fantasy Grand Master Gene Wolfe, 1931-2019 https://reactormag.com/gene-wolfe-in-memoriam-1931-2019/

#5yrsago Leaked, “highly classified” French report shows that the slaughter in Yemen depends on US support https://theintercept.com/2019/04/15/saudi-weapons-yemen-us-france/

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#1yrago SVB bailouts for everyone – except affordable housing projects https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/15/socialism-for-the-rich/#rugged-individualism-for-the-poor

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Yesterday's threads: Twinkfrump Linkdump; and more!

https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/112264394096721038

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Cory Doctorow

2024-04-13 14:31:48

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: Twinkfrump Linkdump; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/13/goulash/

#Pluralistic

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My last novel was "The Lost Cause," a solarpunk novel of radical hope in the climate emergency, from Tor Books (US)/Head of Zeus (UK):

http://lost-cause.org

Signed, personalized copies available from Dark Delicacies:

https://www.darkdel.com/store/p3007/Pre-Order_Signed_Copies%3A_The_Lost_Cause_HB.html#/

--

My latest nonfiction book is "The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation" from Verso Books:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

Signed copies available from Book Soup:

https://www.booksoup.com/book/9781804291245

Both are national bestsellers!

11/

My ebooks and audiobooks (from Tor Books, Head of Zeus, McSweeneys, Beacon, Verso and others) are for sale all over the net, but I sell 'em too, and when you buy 'em from me, I earn twice as much and you get books with no DRM and no license "agreements."

https://craphound.com/shop/

12/

Upcoming appearances:

* The Bezzle at Anderson's Books (Chicago), Apr 17
https://www.andersonsbookshop.com/event/cory-doctorow-1

* Torino Tech Biennale, Apr 21
https://www.biennaletecnologia.it/evento/come-sfuggire-al-merdocene-e-costruire-un-internet-migliore/

* The Bezzle at Book Passage (Corte Madera, Marin), Apr 27
https://www.bookpassage.com/event/cory-doctorow-bezzle-martin-hench-novel-corte-madera-store

* Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (Winnipeg), May 2
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/cory-doctorow-tickets-798820071337

* Wordfest (Calgary), May 3
https://wordfest.com/2024/event/wordfest-presents-cory-doctorow-2/

* Massy Arts (Vancouver), May 4
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/solo-reading-cory-doctorow-the-bezzle-tickets-876989167207

13/

Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* Tartu Prima Vista Literary Fest, May 5-11
https://tartu2024.ee/en/kirjandusfestival/

* “Enshittification” and AI, with @timoreilly (virtual), May 14
https://www.oreilly.com/live-events/tim-oreilly-and-cory-doctorow-on-enshittification-and-the

* "Finding the Money" screening (LA), May 15
https://www.laemmle.com/film/finding-money?date=2024-05-15

* Authorship in an Age of Monopoly and Moral Panics (SF), May 17
https://www.authorsalliance.org/2024/03/15/authors-alliance-10th-anniversary-event-authorship-in-an-age-of-monopoly-and-moral-panics/

Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* Media Ecology Association keynote (Amherst, NY), Jun 6-9
https://media-ecology.org/convention

13/

Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* American Association of Law Libraries keynote (Chicago), Jul 21
https://www.aallnet.org/conference/agenda/keynote-speaker/

14/

Recent appearances:

* Deep Dive podcast
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0bS0DS1H7ghHkiyx4KzXBV?si=fe7242019e734d61

* Digital capitalism course: What is digital capitalism? (Transnational Institute)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCzWpEQcd7E

* The Scam Economy (Lost Dollar Business Club)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SChg9ZiY_bk

15/

You can follow these posts as a daily blog at pluralistic.net: no ads, trackers, or data-collection!

Here's today's edition: https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/15/whistleblown/

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16/

I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel *The Bezzle*! Catch me THIS WEDNESDAY (Apr 17) in CHICAGO, then Torino (Apr 21), Marin County (Apr 27), Winnipeg (May 2), Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), and beyond!

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/16/narrative-capitalism/#bezzle-tour

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