TOC 09 "Digital Distribution and the Whip Hand: Don't Get iTunesed with your eBooks" -- Cory Doctoro

Cory Doctorow (craphound.com) is a science fiction novelist, blogger and technology activist. He is the co-editor of the popular weblog Boing Boing (boingboing.net), and a contributor to Wired, Popular Science, Make, the New York Times, and many other newspapers, magazines and websites. He was formerly Director of European Affairs for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (eff.org), a non-profit civil liberties group that defends freedom in technology law, policy, standards and treaties. In 2007, he served as the Fulbright Chair at the Annenberg Center for Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California. His novels are published by Tor Books and simultaneously released on the Internet under Creative Commons licenses that encourage their re-use and sharing, a move that increases his sales by enlisting his readers to help promote his work. He has won the Locus and Sunburst Awards, and been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula and British Science Fiction Awards. His latest novel, New York Times Bestseller LITTLE BROTHER, was published in May 2008, and his latest short story collection is OVERCLOCKED: STORIES OF THE FUTURE PRESENT. In 2008, Tachyon Books published a collection of his essays, called CONTENT: SELECTED ESSAYS ON TECHNOLOGY, CREATIVITY, COPYRIGHT AND THE FUTURE OF THE FUTURE (with an introduction by John Perry Barlow) and IDW published a collection of comic books inspired by his short fiction called CORY DOCTOROW?S FUTURISTIC TALES OF THE HERE AND NOW. His next novel is MAKERS, due from Tor Books in October, 2009. He co-founded the open source peer-to-peer software company OpenCola, sold to OpenText, Inc in 2003, and presently serves on the boards and advisory boards of the Participatory Culture Foundation, the MetaBrainz Foundation, Technorati, Inc, the Organization for Transformative Works, Areae, the Annenberg Center for the Study of Online Communities, and Onion Networks, Inc. In 2007, Entertainment Weekly called him, ?The William Gibson of his generation.? He was also named one of Forbes Magazine?s 2007 Web Celebrities, and one of the World Economic Forum?s Young Global Leaders for 2007. He is presently working on a new young adult novel, FOR THE WIN (about union organizing in video games). On February 3, 2008, he became a father. The little girl is called Poesy Emmeline Fibonacci Nautilus Taylor Doctorow, and is a marvel that puts all the works of technology and artifice to shame.

Play episode as :

Peterd said: 219 days ago

This is a great talk. It amazes me the number of people that are not willing to talk about this issue due to the fact that in the minds of many there is theft involved. Regardless of what is occurring why is it wrong to examine the reasons for actions?

I own many ebook readers and the demise of Gemstar/Nuvomedia taught me to never pay for content that is DRM. I own a Kindle and I love it. Unfortunately for Amazon I do not pay for content from them but rather from Baen, Black Mask and other open source vendors.

langdons said: 219 days ago

Great presentation with some important points. As a consumer, there is no way that I will buy DRM locked books (or music). I don't trust any DRM system, or hardware to last more than a few years, so books that I pay for will all be printed on real paper (or, like the copy of Little Brother that I downloaded, I will print myself).

The publishing industry (along with the music and movie industries) need to solve this problem in a way that is fair to the consumer and the author. DRM doesn't solve it and doesn't endear them to us the consumers (as Cory Doctoro points out).

Whatever happens something has to change. Clinging to the past and old business models is not the answer. If that means that there is no business for big media publishers, then sadly that may mean that they have no business in the long run.

These companies need to add value to the product to justify charging customers and authors money. If they don't then eventually someone else will find a better solution and their businesses will cease to exist. It's in their own interest to find a solution that makes sense to everyone.