Attention — Sep 11, 2026

Automated calls, fraud and the banks: a mismatch made in hell

Podcast – Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com · 11:14

In this podcast, Cory Doctorow returns from an extensive book tour for Pirate Cinema, mentioning appearances with Margaret Atwood, David Byrne, and William Gibson, a Library of Congress presentation, upcoming events in Copenhagen, Brazil, London, and Toronto, and his work on new writing projects, including a possible sequel to Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom and a Little Brother-related story. H…

Doubling Down on DRM

Podcast – Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com · 11:18

Cory Doctorow opens with personal updates about family vacation, DEF CON, Burning Man, book tours, but main content is his Publishers Weekly column “Doubling Down on DRM.” He discusses a letter from Hachette UK CEO to an author whose books are published by Hachette in some territories and by Tor Books/Macmillan in others. Hachette objects to Tor’s no-DRM policy, claiming it makes it difficult to p…

Music: The Internet’s Original Sin

Podcast – Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com · 11:21

In this podcast episode, Cory Doctorow reads his Locus column Music: The Internet’s Original Sin, arguing that music remains the central battleground for internet copyright, file sharing, and digital culture because it sits at the intersection of commerce, culture, identity, technology, and everyday social life. He begins by noting that music is older than language and deeply embedded in human bio…

Google admits that Plato’s cave doesn’t exist

Podcast – Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com · 11:24

This podcast episode opens with Cory Doctorow updating listeners on recent digital-rights events, including an EFF, Open Rights Group, and Tor Project gathering in London held just before the UK draft communications bill, or “snoopers charter,” which would require ISPs to retain users’ internet activity and hand it to authorities without judicial oversight. He also describes an OSCE internet-freed…

The Curious Case of Internet Privacy

Podcast – Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com · 11:27

In this podcast, Cory Doctorow opens with personal updates: he received an honorary doctorate in computer science from the Open University, mourns the sudden death of his close friend Eric Stewart, and promotes upcoming events with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and other appearances. He then reads his MIT Technology Review article, The Curious Case of Internet Privacy, which challenges the co…

The problem with nerd politics

Podcast – Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com · 11:29

In this podcast, Cory Doctorow opens with announcements about upcoming appearances, including talks on the war on general purpose computing, conferences in Australia and Ireland, and receiving an honorary computer science doctorate. He also mentions family life and his wife’s startup Make Makeys, which sells 3D-printed toys and games, and promotes his forthcoming young-adult novel Pirate Cinema, a…

Why the death of DRM would be good news for readers, writers and publishers

Podcast – Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com · 11:33

In this podcast, Cory Doctorow reads his Guardian column arguing that the removal of digital rights management from ebooks is beneficial for readers, writers, and publishers. He begins with Tor Books’ announcement that it would eliminate DRM from all its ebooks, calling it a seismic moment and the beginning of the end for DRM. Doctorow contends that DRM cannot truly work because once one person ci…

A Prose By Any Other Name

Podcast – Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com · 11:40

In this podcast, Cory Doctorow opens with a brief personal update, explaining that his voice sounds odd because of travel, guests, a broken pool heater, and a Linux audio recording bug. He mentions upcoming appearances in Copenhagen, Washington DC via Skype, Sydney, and a secret event, then shares professional news: his nonfiction book Information Doesn’t Want to Be Free is nearly complete, with N…

Why did an MPAA executive join the Internet Society?

Podcast – Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com · 11:46

Cory Doctorow opens with brief personal updates about recent travel to San Francisco, upcoming events, and current writing projects, then turns to his Guardian column examining the Internet Society’s appointment of Paul Brigner, former chief technology officer of the Motion Picture Association of America, as its North American regional director. The appointment alarmed many internet activists beca…

Protecting your Facebook privacy at work isn’t just about passwords

Podcast – Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com · 11:49

This podcast episode opens with Cory Doctorow recounting a busy travel schedule: attending EasterCon/Olympus in the UK, presenting at the Kansas Library Association and Kansas Public Library, speaking at the Pirate Party International General Assembly in Prague, and preparing to write a novella about 3D printing on the moon for Neil Stevenson’s Hieroglyphics project. He also mentions upcoming appe…

A Whip to Beat Us With

Podcast – Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com · 11:54

In this episode, Cory Doctorow opens with brief announcements about upcoming appearances at Eastercon, the Kansas Library Association, Wichita Public Library, and the Pirate Party International Congress, plus notes on Pirate Cinema, weight loss, and forthcoming Boing Boing book reviews. The main segment is his reading of a Publishers Weekly column titled “A Whip to Beat Us With.” Doctorow argues t…

Copyright isn’t dead just because we’re not willing to let it regulate us

Podcast – Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com · 11:58

In this podcast, Cory Doctorow opens with updates about upcoming appearances at Easter Con, the Kansas Library Association, and the Pirate Party International Conference, as well as his work on certificate transparency and meetings with technology and civil liberties figures. He then reads his Guardian column, Copyright isn’t dead just because we’re not willing to let it regulate us. Doctorow argu…

Censorship is inseparable from surveillance

Podcast – Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com · 12:01

In this podcast, Cory Doctorow opens with personal updates after a trip to Washington, D.C., where he spoke at the International Association of Privacy Professionals conference and discussed privacy, disclosure, and transparency with Jeff Jarvis. He mentions finishing his nonfiction book Information Doesn’t Want to Be Free, upcoming passport and family errands, and speaking engagements in London a…

What’s Inside the Box?

Podcast – Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com · 12:11

In this podcast, Cory Doctorow opens with personal updates about travel, family, writing projects, and weight loss before reading his Locus column “What’s Inside the Box?” The essay examines a central computer-security question: who should be able to know or control the software running on a device? Doctorow begins with the technical limits of certainty: because of the halting problem and software…

Interview with WNIJ Chicago

Podcast – Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com · 12:15

In this interview with WNIJ Chicago, Cory Doctorow identifies two central dilemmas created by the internet. First, the internet makes it easier for people to coordinate without traditional institutions, which is profoundly disruptive. Drawing on Ronald Coase’s theory of the firm, Doctorow argues that many social institutions exist mainly to coordinate people, but networked technologies allow large…

Digital Lysenkoism

Podcast – Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com · 12:20

In this podcast, Cory Doctorow opens with personal updates: a hiatus, his daughter Posie’s fourth birthday, improving health after finding a Feldenkrais-based movement therapist, and weight loss on the 17-day diet. He outlines upcoming travel for Day of Doctor O, Capricorn, a Guest of Honor appearance, a first public reading of Homeland, a speech at University of Texas at Arlington, and a privacy/…

Podcast: A Vocabulary for Speaking about the Future

Podcast – Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com · 12:26

In this podcast, Cory Doctorow opens with personal updates about being in London, upcoming appearances in Chicago, Texas, and British Columbia, and his ongoing work on a nonfiction book about copyright, a revised draft of Little Brother 2/Homeland, and planned afterwords. He then reads his Locus column, “A Vocabulary for Speaking about the Future,” which challenges the common claim that science fi…

The Coming War on General Purpose Computation

Podcast – Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com · 12:35

In this keynote from the 28th Chaos Communications Congress, Cory Doctorow argues that the copyright wars are only an early rehearsal for a much larger struggle over the future of general-purpose computers and networks. He traces how early software copy protection failed because it punished legitimate users while pirates easily bypassed it, and how laws such as the WIPO Copyright Treaty and later…

An Urgent Christmas Message

Podcast – Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com · 12:37

In this brief holiday episode, Cory Doctorow closes out his 2011 podcast series with seasonal greetings for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and the New Year. He explains that he is not doing a reading because he is very close to finishing the sequel to Little Brother, titled Homeland, a project he says has been exhausting and is taking a toll on him, especially since he also has a cold. The main pur…

Another Place, Another Time

Podcast – Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com · 12:42

This video is a podcast episode in which Cory Doctorow introduces and reads his short story “Another Place, Another Time,” written for The Chronicles of Harris Burdick, a companion to Chris Van Allsburg’s Mysteries of Harris Burdick. Before the reading, Doctorow shares personal updates: he is back in London writing, working on Little Brother 2, tentatively titled Homeland, and approaching 81,000 w…

Audio version of my essay collection Context

Podcast – Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com · 12:43

This audio version presents Cory Doctorow’s essay “Think Like a Dandelion,” read by Jan Rubak as part of a fan-produced audiobook of Doctorow’s collection Context. The essay uses Doctorow’s new parenthood as a starting point to compare mammalian and dandelion reproductive strategies. Mammals invest heavily in each offspring and therefore worry intensely about the fate of every individual copy, jus…

Authorised Domain

Podcast – Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com · 12:45

This podcast episode opens with Cory Doctorow sharing personal and professional updates after attending the VU conference in Turin, where he reunited with friends including Bruce Sterling and Yasmina Tasanovich and enjoyed Italian food. He mentions upcoming travel to Germany for appearances in Berlin, Hamburg, and Munich, followed by talks at Wharton, PhilCon, and Washington, DC. He also reports p…

Saying Information Wants to Be Free Does More Harm Than Good

Podcast – Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com · 12:48

In this podcast episode, Cory Doctorow opens with personal updates about visiting Finland, hosting a friend, and preparing for New York Comic Con, before turning to a reading from his essay collection Context. The central essay, ‘Saying Information Wants to Be Free Does More Harm Than Good,’ argues that the popular slogan ‘information wants to be free’ has become a misleading caricature of digital…

Jack and the Internetstalk, from Context

Podcast – Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com · 12:49

In this episode of the Cory Doctorow podcast, Doctorow announces that his second essay collection, Context: Further Selected Essays on Productivity, Creativity, Parenting, and Politics in the 21st Century, has been released. He notes that the book contains more than forty Creative Commons–licensed essays, includes an introduction by Tim O’Reilly, and is available as a free download, with a system…

The Brave Little Toaster, from TRSF

Podcast – Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com · 12:53

This video is an episode of Cory Doctorow’s podcast in which he returns from a summer break and shares updates about his travels, public appearances, and writing projects. He recounts attending Worldcon in Reno, visiting Burning Man, meeting family in Toronto, giving lectures in Michigan and Ontario, participating in the Brooklyn Book Fair and O’Reilly Strata Conference, and visiting writer Daniel…