Review: Information Doesn't Want to be Free, by Cory Doctorow
by
Stuart Holland
I know enough about Cory Doctorow and have read enough of his non-novel writing to know that I was going to agree with him before I even read this. Still, it’s interesting to pull out the specifics.
Copyright, ownership, authorship, and the future of the arts are all thorny and difficult topics. But in this domain, of DRM and legitimate customers who are treated like the enemy (and get a subpar experience to boot), the actual best path is pretty obvious. It’s not the most likely, but Cory draws out why we should want it very well. And “we” isn’t just customers - something that Cory outlines very clearly here is that artists are often getting the short end of the stick from DRM-like schemes as well, in more insidious and often more damaging ways.
This book is from a while ago (2014) and that is noticeable. The examples used pale in comparison to the more egregious cases that have happened since, of artists being unable to sell their own work as they please, of customers denied the products they paid for, and now lost in an AI labyrinth of “customer service” systems that aren’t actually designed to help them fix their problem.
But I digress. I think most people who interact with artistic expression on the internet should read this. A much better version of the media landscape we all live in is possible. There are no technical hurdles preventing them. (In fact, technical hurdles wise, they’re often easier.) The problems are social and political. This book helps you see them.
However, I might suggest not reading the audiobook version that I did. Wil Wheaton does a fine job, but the piano interludes are not well balanced with the volume of the narrative recording. They cut in frequently and are extremely distracting. By setting the volume so you can hear the narrative, you’ll be deafened by the musical stings. Not a fun experience.
