Notices by Cory Doctorow (pluralistic@mamot.fr)

Yesterday's threads: Trump loves Big Tech; and more!

https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/114218292455777262

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My last nationally bestselling novel was "The Bezzle," an ice-cold revenge story of high-tech finance crime starring the forensic accountant Martin Hench.

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865878/thebezzle

Signed copies from Chevalier's Books:

https://www.chevaliersbooks.com/product-page/the-bezzle

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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!

10/

Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* #Pittsburgh: Picks and Shovels at White Whale Books, May 15
https://whitewhalebookstore.com/events/20250515

* #Pittsburgh: PyCon, May 16
https://us.pycon.org/2025/schedule/

* #PDX: Teardown 2025, Jun 20-22
https://www.crowdsupply.com/teardown/portland-2025

* #PDX: Picks and Shovels at Barnes and Noble, Jun 20
https://stores.barnesandnoble.com/event/9780062183697-0

* #NewOrleans: DeepSouthCon63, Oct 10-12, 2025
http://www.contraflowscifi.org/

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#10yrsago Woman medicated in a psychiatric ward until she said Obama didn’t follow her on Twitter https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/woman-held-in-psychiatric-ward-after-correctly-saying-obama-follows-her-on-twitter-10132662.html

#10yrsago As crypto wars begin, FBI silently removes sensible advice to encrypt your devices https://www.techdirt.com/2015/03/26/fbi-quietly-removes-recommendation-to-encrypt-your-phone-as-fbi-director-warns-how-encryption-will-lead-to-tears/

#10yrsago Australia outlaws warrant canaries https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/03/australian-government-minister-dodge-new-data-retention-law-like-this/

#10yrsago TPP leak: states give companies the right to repeal nations’ laws https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/02/its-time-act-now-congress-poised-introduce-bill-fast-track-tpp-next-week

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#5yrsago Social distancing and other diseases https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/26/badger-masks/#flu-too

#5yrsago Record wind-power growth https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/26/badger-masks/#blows-blows

#5yrsago Sanders on GOP stimulus cruelty https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/26/badger-masks/#unlimited-cruelty

#5yrsago Canada nationalizes covid patents https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/26/badger-masks/#c13

#5yrsago LoC plugs Little Brother https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/26/badger-masks/#lb-loc

7/

Recent appearances:

* Capitalists Hate Capitalism (MMT Podcast)
https://pileusmmt.libsyn.com/195-capitalists-hate-capitalism-with-cory-doctorow

* How to Destroy Our Tech Overlords (Homeless Romantic)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epma2B0wjzU

* The internet that could have been was ruined by billionaires (Real News Network)
https://therealnews.com/the-internet-that-could-have-been-was-ruined-by-billionaires

14/

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel *Picks and Shovels*.

Catch me in #CHICAGO with PETER SAGAL on Apr 2:

https://exileinbookville.com/events/44853s

And in #BLOOMINGTON on Apr 4:

https://morgensternbooks.com/event/2025-04-04/author-event-cory-doctorow

More tour dates here:

http://martinhench.com
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Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: Why I don't like AI art; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/25/communicative-intent/

#Pluralistic

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Why I don't like AI art: I think I've figured it out.

https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/114225413134332308

3/

Hey look at this

* Spammers are more consistent at making SPF, DKIM, and DMARC correct than are legitimate senders https://toad.social/@grumpybozo/114213600922816869

* The Turd Reich https://mcusercontent.com/bd36014b9888db9081d204e78/files/27983e2f-9aa0-bf57-321f-53c4dbdeb252/the_turd_reich_A0_.pdf (h/t Crystaltips)

* Merchant of Menace: Trump and the Jews https://prospect.org/politics/2025-03-25-merchant-of-menace-trump-and-the-jews/

4/

#15yrsago Secret copyright treaty will sideline the UN and replace it with private club of rich countries https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2010/03/acta-superstructure/

#15yrsago Discarded photocopier hard drives stuffed full of corporate secrets https://web.archive.org/web/20100322192937/http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/781567--high-tech-copy-machines-a-gold-mine-for-data-thieves

#10yrsago If Indiana legalizes homophobic discrimination, Gen Con’s leaving Indianapolis https://files.gencon.com/Gen_Con_Statement_Regarding_SB101.pdf

#10yrsago Sandwars: the mafias whose illegal sand mines make whole islands vanish https://www.wired.com/2015/03/illegal-sand-mining/

5/

#5yrsago The ideology of economics https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/26/badger-masks/#piketty

#1yrago Meatspace twiddling https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/26/glitchbread/#electronic-shelf-tags

8/

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/

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Upcoming appearances:

* #Chicago: Picks and Shovels with Peter Sagal, Apr 2
https://exileinbookville.com/events/44853

* #Chicago: ABA Techshow, Apr 3
https://www.techshow.com/

* #Bloomington: Picks and Shovels at Morgenstern, Apr 4
https://morgensternbooks.com/event/2025-04-04/author-event-cory-doctorow

12/

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/2025/03/25/communicative-intent/

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If you prefer a newsletter, subscribe to the plura-list, which is ad-/tracker-free, and is utterly unadorned save a single daily emoji. Today's is "⛰". Suggestions solicited for future emojis!

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You can also get a fulltext RSS feed, licensed CC BY 4.0:

https://pluralistic.net/feed/

15/

AI can't do your job, but an AI salesman (Elon Musk) can convince your boss (the USA) to fire you and replace you (a federal worker) with a chatbot that can't do your job:

https://www.pcmag.com/news/amid-job-cuts-doge-accelerates-rollout-of-ai-tool-to-automate-government

--

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/2025/03/18/asbestos-in-the-walls/#government-by-spicy-autocomplete

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Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: AI can't do your job; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/18/asbestos-in-the-walls/

#Pluralistic

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Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: Amazon annihilates Alexa privacy settings, turns on continuous, nonconsensual audio uploading; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/15/altering-the-deal/

#Pluralistic

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Even by Amazon standards, this is extraordinarily sleazy: from Mar 28, each Amazon Echo device will cease processing audio on-device and instead upload all the audio it captures to Amazon's cloud for processing, even if you have previously opted out of cloud-based processing:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/03/everything-you-say-to-your-echo-will-be-sent-to-amazon-starting-on-march-28/

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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/2025/03/15/altering-the-deal/#telescreen

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Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: Eggflation is excuseflation; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/10/demand-and-supply/

#Pluralistic

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