EP 024 Cory Doctorow on the Copyfight

Cory Doctorow is a bestselling author of both science fiction and techno-sociological nonfiction, one of four editors of longtime popular weblog boingboing, and an activist and advocate for intellectual property rights, working extensively with the Electronic Freedom Foundation and others to put control of content back in the hands of the users like you and me. Photo credit: Jonathan Worth 2013 Today, we talk about the EFF's plan to defeat Digital Rights Management (DRM) as a business model of rent-seeking corporations. DRM is the set of digital locks on the content you buy--everything from eBooks to your car's computer have DRM embedded--and while it isn't impossible to break, it is highly illegal for you (or anyone) to do so. That means you don't have control of things that you bought. It also means that security flaws cannot always be researched or revealed. That's a big problem. We also talk about how he became a writer and how he gets his writing done despite a punishing travel and speaking schedule. Spoiler: 250 words a day, every day will result in a finished product very quickly. That's one page per day. You can do that, can't you? Show Links and Notes EFF The EFF on the DRM lawsuit Bunnie Huang on the DRM lawsuit boingboing Cory's website, craphound.com Flickr Twitter The flashbake version control tool Cory's books include: Little Brother Information Doesn't Want to be Free: Laws for the Information Age Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom