I heard about Cory Doctorow from Brad Spangler’s blog. Cory Doctorow is a civil liberties activist, co-editor of Boing Boing and former Director of European Affairs for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

I really liked his sci-fi fantasy novel Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town, set in Toronto. The free download is here.

There is a great line in the intro:

“The worst technology idea since the electrified nipple-clamp is “Digital Rights Management,” a suite of voodoo products that are supposed to control what you do with information after you lawfully acquire it. … No customer wants DRM. No one woke up this morning and said, “Damn, I wish there was a way to do less with my books, movies and music.””

He also explains the Creative Commons license concept and how giving away e-books increases his sales.

His latest book, Little Brother is about teens dealing with the surveillance society and Big Brother.

There is an interview (http://freetalklive.com/files/doctorow.mp3) with him from July at Free Talk Live where some disagreements come up with the libertarian hosts.

August 15th, 2008