Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity, Copyright, and the Future of the Future

by Cory Doctorow

Hailed by Bruce Sterling as a “political activist, gizmo freak, junk collector, programmer, entrepreneur, and all-around Renaissance geek,” Cory Doctorow is the Web’s most celebrated high-tech pop-culture maven. Content is the first collection of Doctorow’s infamous articles, essays, and polemics.

Here’s why Microsoft should stop treating its customers as criminals (through relentless digital-rights management); how America chose copyright and Happy Meal toys over jobs; why Facebook is taking a faceplant; how Wikipedia is a poor cousin of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; and, of course, why free e-books kick ass.

Accessible to geeks and noobs (if you’re not sure what that means, it’s you) alike, Content is a must-have compilation from Cory Doctorow, who will be glad to take you along for the ride as he effortlessly surfs the zeitgeist.

Genres: Nonfiction, Technology, Essays, Philosophy, Politics, Audiobook, Ebooks

213 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist, journalist and blogger — the co-editor of Boing Boing and the author of the YA graphic novel In Real Life, the nonfiction business book Information Doesn’t Want To Be Free, and young adult novels like Homeland, Pirate Cinema, and Little Brother and novels for adults like Rapture Of The Nerds and Makers. He is a Fellow for the Electronic Frontier Foundation and co-founded the UK Open Rights Group. Born in Toronto, Canada, he now lives in Los Angeles.

Reviews

[Nicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

The essays in Content are completely unsurprising, if you know anything about Cory Doctorow. He's anti-DRM and pro-freedom of information; he offers his books free online (including this one) and profits by it, and suggests that everyone can follow his example. I don't actually think he's completely right about that, but his ideas are compelling.

The essays get somewhat repetitive, and were for me a bit bogged down in referring to American laws and the history of the film/tech industry in the US, since I know little about it and had to work hard to follow. Still, aside from that, his writing is very easy to follow, and I find his ideas fairly convincing -- if even my mother can get round DRM, it's a waste of time right there, without getting into any complex issues.

[Alessandro · Rating 4 out of 5]

1. [Io interpreto il libro come una “pratica” – una raccolta di attività sociali, economiche e artistiche – e non un “oggetto”. Vedere il libro come “pratica” invece che come “oggetto” è un’idea innovativa, e conduce alla domanda: cosa diavolo è un libro? Bella domanda.]

2. [Gli ebook devono abbracciare la loro natura. [Ebooks need to embrace their nature] Questo valore peculiare degli ebook è ortogonale al valore dei libri cartacei e ruota attorno alle possibilità del testo elettronico di essere modificato e inviato. Più si cerca di vincolare un ebook, intaccando la sua peculiare essenza – ovvero, più si cerca di restringere la capacità di un lettore di copiare, trasportare o trasformare un ebook – più questo dovrà essere valutato con lo stesso metodo di un libro cartaceo. Gli ebook falliscono su questo piano. Gli ebook non superano i libri per una sofisticata tipografia, non possono competere con loro per la qualità della carta o per l’odore della colla, ma provate a inviare un libro a un amico in Brasile, gratuitamente, in meno di un secondo, o a caricare un milione di libri su un piccola chiavetta di memoria che penzola dal vostro portachiavi. Provate a rintracciare in un libro ogni occorrenza del nome di un personaggio per cercare un passaggio che vi è piaciuto. Maledizione, provate a ritagliare un piccolo passo da un libro e incollarlo sul vostro file.]

3. [Mi sembra che i libri elettronici siano “diversi” dai libri di carta, e che abbiano diversi pregi e difetti rispetto a essi. Pensiamo un po’ a cosa ha attraversato il libro negli anni passati. Questo è interessante perché la storia del libro è la storia dell’Illuminismo, della Riforma, dei Padri Pellegrini e infine della colonizzazione delle Americhe e della Rivoluzione Americana. Parlando in generale, c’era un tempo in cui i libri erano stampati a mano dai monaci su pelli rare. Le sole persone che potevano leggerli erano preti, che potevano osservare i magnifici disegni che i monaci tracciavano sui margini delle pagine. I preti leggevano i libri ad alta voce, in latino (a un pubblico che per la maggior parte non parlava latino) [Bibbia in latino] nelle cattedrali, immersi in prezioso incenso che scaturiva da turiboli fatti oscillare dai chierichetti. Poi Johannes Gutenberg inventò la pressa da stampa. Martin Lutero trasformò quella pressa in una rivoluzione. [Bibbia di Lutero] Stampò Bibbie in lingue che potevano essere lette da tutti e le distribuì alla gente comune che riuscì a leggere la parola di Dio autonomamente. Il resto, come si dice, è storia. Ecco alcune cose interessanti da notare riguardo all’avvento della stampa moderna: [Schema: Lutero contro i monaci] Alle Bibbie di Lutero mancava la qualità di manifattura delle Bibbie miniate. Rispetto a esse erano economiche ma mancavano dell’espressività tipografica che un monaco di talento poteva osare mettendo per iscritto la parola di Dio. Le Bibbie di Lutero erano del tutto prive del tradizionale “pacchetto per l’uso” delle Bibbie miniate. Una buona Bibbia doveva rinforzare l’autorità dell’uomo sul pulpito. Le serviva peso, grande effetto e soprattutto, doveva essere rara. L’esperienza d’uso delle Bibbie stampate faceva schifo. Non c’erano incenso, chierichetti e chi poteva immaginare (a parte il clero) che leggere fosse così difficile per gli occhi? Le Bibbie di Lutero erano molto meno attendibili di quelle della Chiesa. Chiunque disponesse di una pressa ne poteva fabbricare una, sostituendola con qualsiasi testo apocrifo volesse – e chi poteva verificare quanto fosse accurata la traduzione? I monaci avevano un intero papato dietro le spalle. E il Papato sosteneva un’operazione di controllo della qualità, che fino ad allora aveva tenuto a posto l’Europa per secoli.]

4. [I nostri ricordi e le nostre proiezioni del futuro sono necessariamente imperfette. I nostri ricordi sono composti da quelle osservazioni di cui i nostri cervelli hanno preso nota, intrecciate insieme con interfacce e qualsiasi altra cosa sia a portata di mano quando cerchiamo di ricordare. Chiedete a qualcuno che sta assaporando un pranzo gustoso com’era la colazione, e con tutta probabilità vi risponderà che era deliziosa. Ponete la stessa domanda a qualcuno che sta mangiando il cibo gommoso dell’aereo, e vi risponderà che la colazione è stata terribile. Intrecciamo il passato dei nostri ricordi difettosi con ciò che percepiamo nel presente. Creiamo il futuro quasi nello stesso modo: utilizziamo il ragionamento e le prove per prevedere ciò che possiamo, e quando incespichiamo sull’incertezza, riempiamo il vuoto con il presente.]

[April · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting food for thought, but references to outdated sites and equipment (like AltaVista and texting using cell phone digits) make it feel less relevant today.

[Desiree · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved his book! It's a collection of articles that we previously printed elsewhere, but, when you put them all together, you get a great read!

The author talks a lot about how he releases all his books on the net for free. You would think he would lose money doing so, but the freebies stimulate interest in his books which lead to more copies being sold. The RIAA could learn a lot from this book, instead of actively suing their own customers....

One interesting thing I learned from this book is about the 1995 TRIPS agreement, with the World Trade Organization. Countries who sign onto the bill, can export manufactured goods into the US without ANY tariffs. In return, they have to sign up to protect American copyrights in their own country. The end result has been that a lot of countries have not enforced the laws. Even if they do, there are a lot of poor countries that can not afford to pay for American media.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in copyright law, DRM, electronic distribution of media and it's future. It's easy to read, definitely NOT some dry textbook...

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ha ha, Doctorow, I read your book online without paying for it :P

But I wouldn't have read Content if I'd had to buy it -- and that would have been too bad, because it's a great little book. On matters of copyright, Doctorow reminds me of the way Chinese satirist Lu Xun described himself: a crazy man banging on the outer walls of a blazing iron house in the vain hope of rousing the inhabitants before they burn to death. For Doctorow, the iron house is the notion that intellectual property is something like physical property. But Doctorow's tone is beatific and inexorable: he's joyous in tearing down the misguided thinking behind Digital Rights Management, the End User License Agreement, and the notion that an "information economy" is a place where bits are bought and sold. In its place he erects a utopia of free information.

What's rather marvelous is that Doctorow seems to think of himself as a pragmatist! His arguments rarely boil down to "I personally like free information;" they boil down to "free information is going to happen, so we might as well get ahead of it." This line of argument may or may not be disingenuous -- Doctorow surely does personally like free information -- but his arguments are not uncompelling. Reading Content made me look forward to the future, where I'll get to see whether this wingnut is right, and what the consequences will be if he is! Keep riding that hot air balloon, Cory :)

[Stacy Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was fantastic. By far the most intelligent view on DRM and copyright law I've ever read. Doctorow provides a blunt but realistic outlook for many emerging technologies. I really like the prevailing theme of "Computers are really really good at copying things. The Internet is really really good at transmitting data. Any software or technology that tries to make it harder to copy and transmit data is just dumb. Instead of working against it, develop a new business model."

He also makes some excellent points about eBooks, and why they can be an excellent supplement to print books, but print isn't going anywhere.

This is a collection of previously published essays, so it can get a bit repetitive at times. Also, some of the essays go really well together, while others seem a little off-topic. But that's a minor drawback, and you could easily just read the essays you're interested in.

[West Hartford Public Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sci-fi author and blogger Doctorow exposes the futility of current copyright law and traces the paradigm shift of content vs. container from player-pianos and the invention of radio to ebooks and peer-to-peer file sharing. From the introduction by web pioneer and Grateful Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow to the dozens of previously published articles, Content is smart, funny, and provocative. Although the essays can get a bit repetitive if read straight through, there are so many gems: a lecture delivered to Microsoft software engineers on the evils of DRM; an interview with futurist Ray Kurzweil; and even a rant against his phone's keypad. Doctorow practices what he preaches, too. If you don't want to read Content as an old-fashioned paper book-thing, download it (and all his other books) for free from craphound.com.

[Svalbard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Questo e-book a distribuzione gratuita contiene una serie di interessanti saggi scritti dall’autore di fantascienza Cory Doctorow nella prima metà degli anni Duemila su vari aspetti della società tecnologica e dei suoi aspetti, tanto quelli strettamente tecnologici quanto quelli relativi, ad esempio, al diritto d’autore, alla protezione dei dati digitali, eccetera. Ovviamente Doctorow è platealmente a favore della libertà di diffusione della conoscenza digitale, dell’eleborazione dei contenuti e quant’altro; ad esempio, come scrittore trova accettabili le “fan-fiction”, ovvero prendere storie e personaggi di altri autori e riscriverle secondo il proprio gusto, cosa che a molti altri autori non piace affatto; o diffondere gratuitamente la propria produzione mediante editoria elettronica, sapendo che molti dopo averla letta compreranno il cartaceo (altra cosa che nel mondo dell’editoria digitale appare quasi una bestemmia). Particolarmente interessanti, poi, i capitoli sull’estetica che possiamo chiamare cyberpunk, ovvero relativi alla modellizzazione della mente umana in ambito di intelligenza artificiale, che possa rendere non più necessari i vincoli della materia biologica e rendere l’intelligenza immateriale e trascendente; arrivare, in sostanza, alla cosiddetta “singolarità”. Fantascienza, ovviamente. Eppure...

L’aspetto particolarmente interessante è quello legato alla differenza di percezione che di varie innovazioni tecnologiche si aveva nemmeno troppi anni fa, e quella che se ne ha oggi. In effetti, molte questioni che erano in ballo allora - la protezione dei diritti digitali, la guerra contro la libera diffusione di contenuti, eccetera - hanno preso strade diverse da quelle che ci si aspettava, e comunque nella maggior parte dei casi le riflessioni di Doctorow si sono rivelate esatte.

Salvo un’eccezione: Facebook. Quando l’autore scrisse il saggio sui social media - nominandone peraltro molti che non ho mai sentito, e uno che ebbe un grande successo momentaneo e poi è sparito (meritatamente) nel dimenticatoio, Myspace - a Facebook profetizzava una sorte non troppo dissimile. Peraltro con ottime ragioni: in particolare l’aspettativa di “istituzionalizzare” e mettere sotto una griglia una cosa volatile come l’amicizia. Che senso ha ricuperare persone che sono scomparse dalla propria vita da anni e anni, e non necessariamente in seguito a rotture eclatanti? Che senso ha definire “amici” perfetti sconosciuti? Che senso ha sentirsi obbligati a definire “amici” persone che hanno avuto un ruolo marginale nella propria vita, o peggio ancora erano persone ostili e nemiche, ma che dopo anni e anni si rifanno vivi e pretendono di essere considerati amici? E soprattutto, ci si rende il conto del portato di togliere “ufficialmente” l’amicizia a persone che fino a ieri erano “ufficialmente” amiche? Doctorow parla di “dichiarazione di guerra” (e in effetti ne ho viste di persone offese a morte dal fatto di essere state “deamicate” su Facebook).

Le cose sono andate diversamente: Facebook è sopravvissuto, e ha ucciso molte altre forme di espressione e di aggregazione di rete, a cominciare dall’universo del blogging. Forse perché è riuscito, a differenza degli altri, a coniugarsi a un modello di business profittevole; forse, semplicemente, il suo percorso esistenziale non è ancora arrivato a termine, ma è solo questione di tempo.

Per ultima cosa, tanto è interessante e apprezzabile il libro, tanto è pessima la traduzione. Spesso vi sono frasi dal significato oscuro, se non veri e propri refusi. Spiace che un editore come Apogeo non sia riuscito a curare adeguatamente questo tipo di aspetto. Va bene l’editoria gratuita, ma...

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Content collects several of Cory Doctorow’s favorite pieces of his written on “technology, creativity, copyright, and the future”, clumping in the mid-2000s. The content is mixed in medium, but united in message: herein are essays, speeches, and interviews that cover technology and creativity, with the occasional obstacle of law. Doctorow began his life’s work in libraries and bookstores, but took note of the bookwarez scene as it emerged in early Usegroups — committed to the scanning and electronic sharing of books — when he shifted into tech and began writing science fiction. If, he figured, people are going to spend hours disassembling, scanning, and sharing books regardless of the law — and science fiction books are especially popular for scanning and sharing — why not simply….offer an ebook version of the book to whosoever wants it? A clean copy, with no OCR errors and with the author’s blessing? Doctorow took a gamble that he could gain more readers through exposure, and thus indirectly, more buyers. Yes, some people may be content with reading an ebook copy, but once hooked they might elect to buy a physical copy they can read outside, or give to a friend. This is not that similar from the early shareware approach of video games, in which the first levels of a game were freely available to play & make copies of, but the full version had to be sent for by mail. Although Doctorow pursued this on a hunch, he also believes that stringent copy protection of ideas is both impossible given the nature of the internet, and ultimately bad for artists and human creativity in general.

In later books he’s advanced this more, writing in Information Doesn’t Want to be Free that there are other models creatives can pursue, like the ‘subscriber’ model employed by Substack, YouTube, and Patreon. Doctorow attacks some legal and technical hurdles directly: his cheeky opening piece is a speech he gave to Microsoft on why it should abandon intrusive digital rights media software, or DRM: I say “cheeky” because Bill Gates famously penned “An Open Letter to Hobbyists” decrying those who copied software and shared it for free, denying programmers like himself sales. Much of the book remains relevant today, like Doctorow’s observations that most ‘consumers’ of media, be it stories or music, pursue ease of use over quality: they prefer an mp3 player packed with low-quality mp3s that they had control over, to something like a Sony Music Clip that offered better quality but few sharable options. This sometimes causes changes in the way creative works are delivered: because most people listen to songs by themselves, not as part of albums, the idea of concept albums has largely faded. There are dated elements, but for those of us who were plugged in in the mid-2000s, that adds its own nostalgic interest: I was interested in his defense of early Wikipedia, and amused by his confident proclamation that facebook would go the way of MySpace, because the more people it attracted, the more negative interactions would grow around it — moving people to ditch the platform for others. I’m told the whippersnappers have moved on these days, and I’m so out of the loop I can’t even go for laughs by guessing at outdated platforms — but facebook is still a giant as far as web traffic goes. right behind Google & YouTube for monthly views.

[Stacy · Rating 2 out of 5]

If I have to choose between this book and Doctorow's "Information Doesn't Want to be Free", I'd pick the latter. Maybe it's because I read that one first, or it's about 7 years more current, but this book felt dated and repetitive as compared to "Information..."

Only a handful of essays in this book jumped out at me. I'll note them briefly below.
"Free(konomic) Ebooks" - this is still relevant, especially as Kindle readers have improved and taken off more than Doctorow seems to have predicted in other essays in this book.

"The Progressive Apocalypse and other Futurismic Delights" - given the state of the world today, this essay is compelling. Not only does it have the best use and definition of the word Lapsarian, it contrasts it with the idea of Signularity.

"World of Democracycraft" - again, given how things are going socially and culturally at present, this essay jumped out at me. The Japanese were wearing masks in public in 2007, not for health so much as for protecting others in public from individual emoting??? Huh. And people were attempting to bankrupt virtual economies by using real dollars, long before the memestock saga came long? Interesting. Could we try implementing scarcity and socialism into some of these virtual worlds just to see how it turns out, before we try it in the real world, please?

[Kian.ting · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn't know that DRM is a bad solution, but the games industry seems to have it really tight. Very interesting concept from the author to allow electronic content to be accessible freely but to charge on hard copy printed books, cause what the author implies with the ideas in his book is that once content is published electronically it is close to impossible to try and manage sharing and consumption rights, and with this idea we all should rethink what digitisation means and what content means and how it should be managed and shared, new economic models needs to be created and we cant merely reuse the old model where we control the rights to the digital content by applying DRM cause the means to access digital content is stupendous with different digital devices.

[Not Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audiobook.

A good collection of essays, speeches, and other proposals on DRM, copyrights, the future of books, and other things in relation to the arts and technology. Opened some thoughts on digital rights, whether it's smart to put novels and stories out there for free versus forcing them to pay for everything, and everything else. Along with other nonfiction books for writers such as Karr, King, and Strunk, I'd recommend this book on the reality of art's changing demographic and how an artist, who hopes to make a living wage on their craft, can survive.

[Marco Delmastro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ascoltato in audiobook, o meglio, "fancast", letto da jan Rubak mentre andavo e tornavo dal lavoro:

http://www.archive.org/details/CoryDo...

In ogni caso, tutta roba che avevo più o meno già letto altrove, ma che ho riascoltato volentieri. Il solo fatto che un fancast sia possibile depone a favore delle licenze Creative Commons, che sono figlie dell'approccio all'informazione che Doctorow propugna da sempre. Da meditare, ma anche da assaporare, perché anche nei pezzi più tecnici lo stile è simpatico e ironico.

[Gena Kukartsev · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second collection of essays from Cory doctors that I read in short succession, the first was Information does not want to be free. It is very entertaining and somewhat insightful but it overlaps quite a bit with the first book, and some of the restaurant are pretty dated at 10-15 years old.

Still very good though

[Rachel Ayers · Rating 3 out of 5]

For some reason when I started this, I thought it was a much newer collection. Fascinating to see how some of these things have played out over the last decade (especially the book of faces) but I would also really like to read the version of this book that came out in the last year or so.

[Vaughan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good collection of essays that have aged well (given the rate of technology change). These give an insight into a sharp mind, and echoes of some of the topics that Doctorow covers in his fiction work.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Collection of essays from Cory Doctorow on the topic of free speech, DRM, books and media, and more generally, creative works. Most of these essays are from the mid-2000s, so interesting read in 2024.

[Alok Talekar · Rating 4 out of 5]

optimistic opinion.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked “Little Brother” and I recognize Cory Doctorow as a sort of patron-saint of open-source (or probably more correctly free-use). I'm almost through this. I like it. Small digestible chunks of advocacy for free-use and arguments against copyright and DRM and other crap.

[Audrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A bestseller by the most popular postwar writer for children of all ages.

[Batu Bekmen]

Örnekler, vakalar eski ama fikir ve argümanlar çoğunlukla taze. Doctorow'un DRM üzerine yazdıklarını bugün müzik piyasası ve Spotify ilişkisine uygulayınca birçok kavram yerli yerine oturuyor.

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ponts for the message, especially with hindsight, but my ears hurt from the constant drum-banging...

[Autolycuse · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's not bad, just kind of outdated. Nothing I hadn't read before...

[Maggie A · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did not realize this was from ‘08. Interesting to read in light of the current state of social media and rampant info sharing. But the essay format can get repetitive.

[Jen Marin · Rating 3 out of 5]

quite the time capsule to read this in 2025.

[Zazu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good but a bit dated.

[Carley · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the best, most clear set of reasons and reflections I’ve ever read. Everything he writes is brilliant.

[Rubén · Rating 2 out of 5]

In general this read is kind of outdated and repetitive. I ‘d recommend you read “Information doesn’t want to be free” instead if you're interested in copyright and Creative Commons.

However, there are a couple of articles about science fiction and the future that turned out to be very helpful.

[A Storied Soul · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first want to say that I do not normally publish reviews on any sort of politically-based non-fiction–I’ve only done it once as far as I remember, and that was for Malala Yousafzai’s I Am Malala–but I felt Cory Doctorow’s essay collection, Content, merited a write-up for a few reasons. Reason one is the relevancy of the subjects covered in this collection. In the midst of a public scandal and fallout between Apple and the FBI regarding the San Bernadino terrorist’s “locked” iPhone and Apple’s refusal to create a damaging and Orwellian “backdoor” to get into it, Doctorow’s arguments for privacy, copyright, and freedom need to be need to be screamed louder by the world’s citizens.

In articles such as “Microsoft Research DRM Talk,” “The DRM Sausage Factory,” or “World of Democracycraft,” Doctorow reflects on the concept of what he calls the “information economy” or the buying, selling, and ownership of knowledge, media, and information access. There are a couple of important arguments he makes, one is that DRM is one form of control used by big business to control access to information, hindering our freedom, creativity, and rights of ownership and access in the process. The other argument is that power structures are built on the possession of information. Those that have access to information, those with the ability to control it–in whatever way–are those with the true power.

Doctorow adeptly outlines solutions to these problems we face in this digital age and the plethora of reasons on why we need to change what we’re doing and how we’re handling said control systems. In making his arguments and solution proposals, I found his passion for the subject matter moving, and I found many of his opinions to be similar to my own. Governments, the “powers that be,” or corporations, have no right to treat law-abiding people as criminals before proven as such. Likewise, consumers have rights to what they pay for, what they own, and we have a right to our privacy and security. These among others are some of Doctorow’s most passionate arguments. However, I take issue with his assumptions that just giving things away for free increases profitability and will immediately solve these problems–it’s just not that simple. There are more inherently deep reasons why current consumerist systems regarding content aren’t working. I also take his issue with the lack of sound research to back up his writing. He’s full of passion, personal experience, and that’s great, but I don’t see any concrete facts that develop his work in this volume further. The “it works for me” mantra isn’t enough. And wrapping it up in skilled writing and rhetorical delivery isn’t enough. Don’t just allude to what’s “out there;” show us.

Ultimately, though, Doctorow’s essays in this collection, are still important for the ongoing discussion of freedom, personal rights, and access to information and the openness of the internet. Even though he lacks the specific factual and statistical research in most of his essays needed to drive his message fully home, I recommend everyone read these essays and to keep an open mind, because they are the start to addressing how we travel a very long road ahead toward a digital world, and I appreciated his work very much.

This review originally appeared on my blog: The Literarium

[Shweta Bharati · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a rhetorical way of writing essays which is mostly a collection of presentations, conferences, et al! Cory Doctorow has a knack of adding humor to whatever he wants to convey which is obviously being talked about for a serious attention. Though, the topics are sophisticated but he has tried his best with several relevant anecdotes which makes it clear to understand the making of copyright and it's subsequent infringement and then anti-circumvention to keep off competitors.

One of the anecdotes is so ironical:

"That's what happened to Jon Johansen, a Norwegian teenager who wanted to watch French DVDs on his Norwegian DVD player. He and some pals wrote some code to break the CSS so that he could do so. He's a wanted man here in America; in Norway the studios put the local fuzz up to bringing him up on charges of unlawfully trespassing upon a computer system. When his defense asked, "Which computer has Jon trespassed upon?" the answer was: "His own." "

And, the way he engages even the mute audience who might be reading online somewhere alone. Like, "Raise your hand if you think something like this,"......"
And then, "put your hand down"

And, this is, ironically, so true!

" "I don't like reading off a computer screen" — it's a cliché of the e-book world. It means "I don't read novels off of computer screens" (or phones, or PDAs, or dedicated e-book readers), and often as not the person who says it is someone who, in fact, spends every hour that Cthulhu sends reading off a computer screen. It's like watching someone shovel Mars Bars into his gob while telling you how much he hates chocolate.
But I know what you mean. You don't like reading long-form works off of a computer screen. I understand perfectly — in the ten minutes since I typed the first word in the paragraph above, I've checked my mail, deleted two spams, checked an image-sharing community I like, downloaded a YouTube clip of Stephen Colbert complaining about the iPhone (pausing my MP3 player first), cleared out my RSS reader, and then returned to write this paragraph."

I read it not on purpose but just because I came across for FREE.Nonetheless, entertainigly informtive! Cory Doctorow obviously is generous with his copyrights.