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Cory Efram Doctorow is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who served as co-editor of the blog Boing Boing. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of the Creative Commons organisation, using some of its licences for his books. Some common themes of his work include digital rights management, file sharing, and post-scarcity economic…
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culture · Canadian-British writer (born 1971) · science fiction writer · blogger · editor · journalist · writer · author · podcaster · website content writer · audiobook narrator · producer · also Cory Doctorow, craphound, Cory Efram Doctorow, Doctorow
Born 17 July 1971 · Q110436
57 published statements · 0 followers
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All secrets become deep. All secrets become dark. That's in the nature of secrets.
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“First, platforms are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves,”
“All secrets become deep. All secrets become dark. That's in the nature of secrets.”
“Christ, you're dragging me out for that? I can tell you what they'll say. They'll drag out the Four Horsemen of the Infocalypse: kiddie porn, terrorists, pirates, and the mafia. They'll tell us that any tool for communicating that they can't tap, log, and switch off is irresponsible. They'll tell us we're stealing from ISPs. It's what they say every time someone tries this: Philly, New York, London. All around the world same song.”
“585 words on “Once Is Enemy Action,” a science fiction novel about the origins of modern technofascism. (6624 words total) # dailywords”
“I'm also on Bluesky. Read today's thread there at: https:// bsky.app/profile/did:web:plura listic.net/post/3mtb4xz4z5k2o eof/”
“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/2026/08/17/gre at-sousas-ghost/ -- 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! -- You can also get a fulltext RSS feed, licensed CC BY 4.0: https:// pluralistic.net/feed/ 23/”
“Recent appearances: * Technofeudal Enshittification (Fucking Cancelled) https://www. fuckingcancelled.com/p/technof eudal-enshittification-with * Who The Machine Serves (EFF) https:// archive.org/details/effecting- change-who-the-machine-serves * Speculative Fiction for Social Change II (Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff) https:// pocketcasts.com/podcast/cool-p eople-who-did-cool-stuff/08cbb840-a6ae-013a-d8aa-0acc26574db2/part-two-cory-doctorow-on-speculative-fiction-for-social-change/937e8800-9404”
“Upcoming appearances (cont'd): * # Vancouver : BC Policy Solutions Gala, Nov 12 https:// bcpolicy.ca/gala/ 21/”
“Upcoming appearances (cont'd): * # London : The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI with Riley Quinn (Foyle's Picadilly), Sep 9 https://www. foyles.co.uk/events/enshittifi cation-cory-doctorow-riley-quinn * # Manchester : Take Back Big Tech with Jovan Owusu-Nepaul (House of Books and Friends), Sep 11 https:// ma.to/event/cory-doctorow-hous e-of-books-and-friends-11-sep-2026 * # SouthBend : An Evening With Cory Doctorow (Notre Dame), Oct 6 https:// franco.nd.edu/events/2026/10/0 6/an-evening”
“Upcoming appearances: * # Edinburgh International Book Festival with Jimmy Wales, Aug 17 https://www. edbookfest.co.uk/events/the-fr ont-list-cory-doctorow-and-jimmy-wales * # Sydney : The Festival of Dangerous Ideas, Aug 23-24 https:// festivalofdangerousideas.com/p rogram/ * # Melbourne : Enshittification at the Wheeler Centre, Aug 25 https://www. wheelercentre.com/events-ticke ts/season-2026/cory-doctorow-enshittification * # Brighton : The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI with Carole”
“My ebooks and audiobooks (from FSGxMCD, 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/ 18/”
“My latest nonfiction book is the internationally bestselling"The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI," from MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux: https:// us.macmillan.com/books/9780374 621568/thereversecentaursguidetolifeafterai/ -- My previous nonfiction book is the internationally bestselling "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It": https:// us.macmillan.com/books/9780374 619329/enshittification/ 17/”
“Yesterday's threads: Capital formation; and more! https:// mamot.fr/@pluralistic/11709375 8013324719 16/”
CBC.ca: Cory Doctorow's book about AI tops the Canadian bestseller list for nonfiction for the 7th week in a row
Public attention spiked: 4,415 Wikipedia readers in one day, 4.3× the usual 1,035, with 0 article edits.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The Indian Express: Who benefits from AI? Cory Doctorow’s new book has an answer
The Guardian: ‘You can’t make billions without hurting people’: Cory Doctorow on Elon Musk, the AI bubble and bosses’ cruel fantasies
The Guardian: The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI by Cory Doctorow review – the real price of artificial intelligence
Doctorow endorsed Avi Lewis in that year's federal NDP leadership race
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Futurism: Amazon Caught Peddling AI Slop Version of Cory Doctorow That’s So Ironic That We Have to Go Outside and Stare at the Sky for a Bit
When it was used by a variety of sources in reference to several major platforms discontinuing free features to further their monetisation or taking other actions that were seen to degrade functionality
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Popularised the neologism enshittification, (which he calls enpoopification on public airwaves) which he defines as a degradation of an online environment caused by greed:
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Doctorow listed the many problems confronting Facebook and suggested that its future would be increasingly fraught
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“Today's # Pluralistic threads are collected here: https:// mamot.fr/@pluralistic/10382218 0530935866”
“My day's # Pluralistic threads of the links I think you should read today is up: https:// mamot.fr/@pluralistic/10381667 8070096513”
“FYI, I'm switching my fediverse Pluralistic feed to a new account to prevent cross-posting. Please consider following @ pluralistic to keep up with my daily links”
“Venna Lucio Nome Opera Circuito automobilistico https:// rare.tumblr.com/post/612350879 193055232/rfsnyder-venna-lucio-nome-opera-circuito”
“Today's top sources: Slashdot ( https:// slashdot.org ), Naked Capitalism ( https:// nakedcapitalism.com/ ). /18”
“Hey, Hugo nominators, my novella Unauthorized Bread is up on Ars Technica! https:// arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01 /unauthorized-bread-a-near-future-tale-of-refugees-and-sinister-iot-appliances/ (it's also shortlisted for Canada's national book prize, Canada Reads; it's being made into a TV show by Topic & a graphic novel with Firstsecond) 17/”
“It's also a daily newsletter, the plura-list, which you can sign up for here: https:// pluralistic.net/plura-list It's ad-free, tracker-free and plain text. My sole nod to adornment is a single daily emoji. Today's is "🎲". I welcome your suggestions for future emojis. 16/”
“I'm also posting these to the fediverse (apols for today's double posts! beware of falling rocks!). Here's today's: https:// mamot.fr/@doctorow/10381089399 7528840 15/”
“These threads are archived daily on http:// Pluralistic.net , my tracker-free, ad-free, cruft-free blog. Here's today's: https:// pluralistic.net/2020/03/12/boe ing-crashes/ 14/”
“Yesterday's threads: Saturated fat and obesity, which foods produce satiety, spying VPNs, Twitter's research-friendly terms of service and more! https:// twitter.com/doctorow/status/12 37779446741889024 13/”
Awarded Inkpot Award (2018).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Hackaday: Cory Doctorow Rails Against The Effect Of DRM And The DMCA
Awarded Theodore Sturgeon Award for The Man Who Sold the Moon (2015).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Doctorow decided to leave London and move to Los Angeles, expressing disappointment at what he termed London's "death" after British voters' choice of a Conservative government
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Awarded Prometheus Award for Homeland (2014).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Awarded Prometheus Award for Pirate Cinema (2013).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Awarded honorary doctorate presented by The Open University (2012).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Was awarded an honorary doctorate from The Open University
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“Nigdy nie należy lekceważyć determinacji dzieciaka mającego dużo czasu i mało kasy.”
Awarded Prometheus Award for Little Brother (2009).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Awarded John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel for Little Brother (2009).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
And won the 2009 Prometheus Award, Sunburst Award, and the 2009 John W
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Doctorow became the first Independent Studies Scholar in Virtual Residence at the University of Waterloo in Ontario
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Awarded Locus Award for Best Novella for After the Siege (2008).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
With a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike licence
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Awarded EFF Award (2007).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Awarded Locus Award for Best Novelette for When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth (2007).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Together with Austrian art group monochrom, he initiated the Instant Blitz Copy Fight project, which asks people from all over the world to take flash pictures of copyright warnings in movie theatres
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Awarded Locus Award for Best Novelette for I, Robot (2006).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Awarded Locus Award for Best First Novel for Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (2004).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Wrote an essay on Wikipedia included in The Anthology at the End of the Universe, comparing Internet attempts at Hitchhiker's Guide-type resources, including a discussion of the Wikipedia article about himself
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“A note about this book, February 12, 2004”
Awarded Astounding Award for Best New Writer (2000).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Born 1971-07-17.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Christ, you're dragging me out for that? I can tell you what they'll say. They'll drag out the Four Horsemen of the Infocalypse: kiddie porn, terrorists, pirates, and the mafia. They'll tell us that any tool for communicating that they can't tap, log, and switch off is irresponsible. They'll tell us we're stealing from ISPs. It's what they say every time someone tries this: Philly, New York, London. All around the world same song.
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/2026/08/17/gre at-sousas-ghost/ -- 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! -- You can also get a fulltext RSS feed, licensed CC BY 4.0: https:// pluralistic.net/feed/ 23/
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