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2026-10-19 00:53:02
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Cory Doctorow
pluralistic@mamot.fr
Today's threads (a thread)
Inside: The technopolitics of ad-tech; and more!
Archived at:
https://pluralistic.net/2026/10/19/spying-v-context/
#Pluralistic
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A halftoned, yellowing scan of a 1940s page of newspaper ads. Emerging from the ads is a halftoned fist clad in spiked brass kuckles.
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2026-10-19 00:53:44
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Cory Doctorow
pluralistic@mamot.fr
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The technopolitics of ad-tech: Spying is good for tech, context is good for publishers.
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/117466398959130071
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Image: Jess (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Newspaper_clipping_from_1940s_01.jpg CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
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2026-10-19 00:54:37
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Cory Doctorow
pluralistic@mamot.fr
Long thread/3
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Hey look at this
* Trump DOJ Launches Bogus TV News Antitrust Probe
* US Rep proposes bill to give video game buyers “ownership,” not “a license”
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/10/us-rep-proposes-bill-to-give-video-game-buyers-ownership-not-a-license/
* Saviour or Scoundrel?
https://scholarsphere.psu.edu/resources/14308c3b-4f2a-4f39-a365-192c0206f886
* Tiny Little Office
https://tinylittleoffice.com/
* Future? No Thanks! - an ecosocialist game
https://futurenothanks.com/
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dc8718f8f72f77f2.jpg
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2026-10-19 00:55:57
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Cory Doctorow
pluralistic@mamot.fr
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#25yrsago
Patrick Nielsen Hayden interviews Mike Ford
https://user.well.com/engaged.cgi?c=inkwell.vue&f=0&t=126
#20yrsago
Singapore bans Far East Economic Review
https://web.archive.org/web/20061010002951/https://www.feer.com/articles1/2006/0610/free/p006.html
#20yrsago
Publishing isn’t bestseller-driven
https://www.nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/conventional_un/
#20yrsago
Why architecture and security don’t mix
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/10/architecture_an.html
#20yrsago
Vista licence: Microsoft’s abusive relationship with you
https://wendy.seltzer.org/blog/archives/2006/10/19/forbidding_vistas_windows_licensing_disserves_the_user.html
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#1yrago
The mad king's digital killswitch
https://pluralistic.net/2025/10/20/post-american-internet/#huawei-with-american-characteristics
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2026-10-19 00:56:45
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Cory Doctorow
pluralistic@mamot.fr
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#20yrsago
Boy Scouts of America Concerned About Copyright
https://web.archive.org/web/20061110065012/http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi%3Ffile%3D/news/archive/2006/10/20/entertainment/e110452D84.DTL
#15yrsago
Canadian Tories admit that Canadians don’t want DRM rules, push for them anyway
https://web.archive.org/web/20111022210131/http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/6071/125
#15yrsago
Visualizing Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan to redistribute wealth from the poor to the rich
https://web.archive.org/web/20111021103517/http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/9-9-9-in-one-really-long-graph/
#15yrsago
Free Bieber: campaign to kill proposed law that would send you to prison for 5 years for singing copyrighted music on YouTube
https://web.archive.org/web/20111020145336/http://freebieber.org/
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2026-10-19 00:57:17
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Cory Doctorow
pluralistic@mamot.fr
Long thread/5
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#15yrsago
Belarusian central bank auctions off its sugar bowls
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/19/belarus-central-bank-sells-office-furniture
#15yrsago
Dataviz as defacement: OCCUPY GEORGE
https://web.archive.org/web/20111022022046/http://www.occupygeorge.com/
#15yrsago
HOWTO avoid a copyright shakedown legal threat: be famous, a politician, a cop, a soldier or a corpse
https://torrentfreak.com/undercover-cops-and-politicians-escape-bittorrent-lawsuit-111013/
#10yrsago
Popular design guides are responsible for plague of grey type
https://web.archive.org/web/20170914051800/https://www.wired.com/2016/10/how-the-web-became-unreadable/
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2026-10-19 00:57:54
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Cory Doctorow
pluralistic@mamot.fr
Long thread/6
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#10yrsago
Digital Defenders: a free open-licensed booklet for kids about privacy and cryptography
https://edri.org/files/privacy4kids_booklet_web.pdf
#10yrsago
Public universities and even the US Navy have sold hundreds of patents to America’s most notorious troll
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/10/inside-intellectual-ventures-portfolio-nearly-500-university-patents
#10yrsago
Airportraits: composite photos of all the daily takeoffs from the world’s airports
https://mikekelley.art/?category=airportraits
#10yrsago
Rich people can afford to buy more sleep than poor people
https://arstechnica.com/science/2016/10/the-rich-can-sleep-in-thanks-to-better-transit/
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2026-10-19 00:58:38
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Cory Doctorow
pluralistic@mamot.fr
Long thread/7
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#10yrsago
Harry Shearer sues studio over Spinal Tap, says he’s received $98 in royalties over 30 years
https://web.archive.org/web/20161224224142/https://www.yahoo.com/movies/harry-shearer-files-125-million-spinal-tap-fraud-suit-copyright-termination-150031664.html
#10yrsago
ACLU asks court to reveal 23 secret surveillance laws
https://web.archive.org/web/20161019224447/https://theintercept.com/2016/10/19/aclu-wants-secret-surveillance-laws-made-public/
#10yrsago
Montana judge unrepentant after sentencing man to 60 days for repeatedly raping his own 12 year old daughter
https://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/19/us/montana-judge-incest-case-trnd/index.html
#10yrago
Turkish court fines bystander/tourist who sued police for shooting out his eye
https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/kyrgyz-tourist-wounded-in-gezi-protests-ordered-to-pay-debt-to-turkish-state--104964
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2026-10-19 00:59:14
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Cory Doctorow
pluralistic@mamot.fr
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#10yrsago
By stealing from innocents, Chicago PD amassed tens of millions in a secret black budget for surveillance gear
https://web.archive.org/web/20160929143255/https://chicagoreader.com/chicago/police-department-civil-forfeiture-investigation/Content?oid=23728922
#10yrsago
Turing’s law: UK to retroactively pardon thousands of men prosecuted for having sex with men
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37711518
#5yrsago
The monopoly strategy behind the Google/Microsoft mobile patent wars
https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/20/vizio-vs-the-world/#capital-as-power
#5yrsago
Copyleft lawsuit against Vizio will allow anyone to defend the commons
https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/20/vizio-vs-the-world/#dumbcast
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2026-10-19 00:59:28
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Cory Doctorow
pluralistic@mamot.fr
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#5yrsago
The true, Terry Pratchett-esque origins of the trillion-dollar coin
https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/19/moist-von-lipwig/#gimmick-v-gimmick
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2026-10-19 01:00:09
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Cory Doctorow
pluralistic@mamot.fr
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Saturday's threads: Israeli ad-tech company was a delivery system for "mercenary spyware"; and more!
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/117455902856454238
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2026-10-19 01:00:25
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Cory Doctorow
pluralistic@mamot.fr
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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/9780374621568/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/9780374619329/enshittification/
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2026-10-19 01:00:51
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Cory Doctorow
pluralistic@mamot.fr
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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/
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2026-10-19 01:02:02
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Cory Doctorow
pluralistic@mamot.fr
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Upcoming appearances:
*
#Vancouver
: Read, Resist, Repair, Rejoice (Vancouver Writers Festival), Oct 19
https://writersfest.bc.ca/festival-event-2026/01
">
https://writersfest.bc.ca/festival-event-2026/01
*
#Victoria
: Munro's Books, Oct 20
https://www.munrobooks.com/events/6113620261020
*
#Vancouver
: Life After AI (Vancouver Writers Festival), Oct 22
https://writersfest.bc.ca/festival-event-2026/46
*
#Ottawa
: Life After AI (Ottawa Writers Festival), Oct 24
https://writersfestival.org/event/life-after-ai
*
#Vienna
: TED AI, Oct 28-30
https://tedai-vienna.ted.com/
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2026-10-19 01:02:34
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Cory Doctorow
pluralistic@mamot.fr
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Upcoming appearances (cont'd):
*
#Kilkenny
: Kilkenomics, Nov 6-8
https://kilkenomics.com/
*
#Vancouver
: Enshittification (Sid Williams Theatre Society), Nov 10
https://www.sidwilliamstheatre.com/events/cory-doctorow-talks-enshittification/
*
#Vancouver
: BC Policy Solutions Gala, Nov 12
https://bcpolicy.ca/gala/
*
#Oxford
: Ministry of the Future, Nov 23
https://ministryforthefuture.co.uk/events.html
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2026-10-19 01:02:47
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Cory Doctorow
pluralistic@mamot.fr
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Upcoming appearances (cont'd):
*
#Sheffield
: Reverse Centaur at Juno Books, Nov 25
https://www.outsavvy.com/event/40274/cory-doctorow-in-conversation
* Virtual: Enshittification, AI, and the Future of Technology (UBC Master of Educational Technology), Nov 28
https://met.ubc.ca/2026/09/met-speaker-series-cory-doctorow-enshittification-ai-and-the-future-of-technology/
*
#Oxford
: Bennett Oxford Symposium on Open Code in Science, Dec 9
https://www.bennett.ox.ac.uk/events/2026-bennett-institute-symposium/
*
#Montreal
: World Science Fiction Convention, Sep 2-6
https://montreal2027.ca/en
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2026-10-19 01:03:19
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Cory Doctorow
pluralistic@mamot.fr
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Recent appearances:
* Life After AI (Brain Bar)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPPa43-n0vI
* Terms of Service with Clare Duffy (CNN)
https://www.cnn.com/audio/podcasts/terms-of-service-with-clare-duffy/episodes/458ce968-af5d-11f0-b539-13ed2afe25f8
* AI, Work, and Power (Software Engineering Daily)
AI, Work, and Power
https://softwareengineeringdaily.com/podcasts/cory-doctorow-on-ai-work-and-power/
* AI, Corporate Power, and the Fight for Worker Control (Plutopia)
https://plutopia.io/cory-doctorow-ai-corporate-power-and-the-fight-for-worker-control/
* How to Think About AI—Before It’s Too Late (Daniel Solove)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0xR3uEgGcc
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bc761e3beb064596.jpg
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2026-10-19 01:03:25
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Cory Doctorow
pluralistic@mamot.fr
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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/2026/10/19/spying-v-context/
--
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/
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