Big Tech joins the race to build the world's heaviest airplane: Die as Microsoft, or live to become the IBM you overthrew.

mamot.fr/@pluralistic/11568927…

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Cory Doctorow

2025-12-09 11:03:52

I have a weird fascination with early-stage Bill Gates, after his mother convinced a pal of hers - chairman of IBM's board of directors - to give her son the contract to provide the operating system for the new IBM PC. Gates and his pal Paul Allen tricked another programmer into selling them the rights to DOS, which they sold to IBM, setting Microsoft on the path to be one of the most profitable businesses in human history.

1/

Hey look at this

* Your Data Might Determine How Much You Pay for Eggs wired.com/story/algorithmic-pr…

* Judge hints Vizio TV buyers may have rights to source code licensed under GPL theregister.com/2025/12/05/viz…

* Chamberlain blocks smart home integrations with its garage door openers — again theverge.com/tech/839294/chamb…

* Smart Garage Door Opener 3reality.com/product/smartgara…

* The Best Books in eBooks and Audiobooks of 2025 kobo.com/us/en/p/best-books-of…

4/

#20yrsago WaWa Digital Cameras threatens to break customer’s neck thomashawk.com/2005/12/abusive…

#20yrsago Keyboard used as bean-sprouting medium web.archive.org/web/2005120501…

#15yrsago Judge to copyright troll: get lost torrentfreak.com/acslaw-take-a…

#15yrsago Ink cartridge rant web.archive.org/web/2010121108…

#15yrsago 1.1 billion US$100 notes out of circulation due to printing error cnbc.com/2010/12/07/the-fed-ha…

5/

#15yrsago EFF wants Righthaven to pay for its own ass-kicking web.archive.org/web/2010121101…

#15yrsago danah boyd explains email sabbaticals zephoria.org/thoughts/archives…

#15yrsago TSA subjects India’s US ambassador to public grope because of her sari web.archive.org/web/2010121111…

#15yrsago California’s safety codes are now open source! code.google.com/archive/p/titl…

#10yrsago When the INS tried to deport John Lennon, the FBI pitched in to help muckrock.com/news/archives/201…

6/

#10yrsago The Big List of What’s Wrong with the TPP eff.org/deeplinks/2015/12/how-…

#10yrsago Concrete Park: apocalyptic, afrofuturistic graphic novel of greatness memex.craphound.com/2015/12/08…

#10yrsago Denmark’s top anti-piracy law firm pocketed $25m from rightsholders, then went bankrupt torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-l…

#5yrsago Uber pays to get rid of its self-driving cars pluralistic.net/2020/12/08/req…

#5yrsago All the books I reviewed in 2020 pluralistic.net/2020/12/08/req…

7/

#5yrsago Ford patents plutocratic lane-changes pluralistic.net/2020/12/08/req…

8/

Yesterday's threads: Elon Musk's Blue Tick scam; and more!

mamot.fr/@pluralistic/11568408…

9/

Cory Doctorow

2025-12-08 13:03:20

In my book *Enshittification*, I develop the concept of "giant teddybears," a scam that has been transposed from carnival midway games to digital platforms. The EU has just fined Elon Musk $140m for running a giant teddybear scam on Twitter:

arstechnica.com/tech-policy/20…

--

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2025/12/08/gia…

1/

Elon Musk’s X first to be fined under EU’s Digital Services Act

The biggest changes Musk made to Twitter trigger a $140 million fine under DSA.

^{Ashley Belanger (Ars Technica)}

My latest novel is "Picks and Shovels," a historical technothriller set in the Weird Era of the PC, about Ponzi schemes, techbros, and the dawn of enshittification:

us.macmillan.com/books/9781250…

--

My latest nonfiction book is the internationally bestselling "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It," from MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux:

us.macmillan.com/books/9780374…

10/

My ebooks and audiobooks (from FSGxMCD, Tor Books, Head of Zeus, McSweeneys, Beacon, Verso and others) are for sale all over the net, but I sell 'em too, and when you buy 'em from me, I earn twice as much and you get books with no DRM and no license "agreements."

craphound.com/shop/

11/

Upcoming appearances:

* #Hamburg: Chaos Communications Congress, Dec 27-30
events.ccc.de/congress/2025/in…

* #Denver: Enshittification at Tattered Cover Colfax, Jan 22
eventbrite.com/e/cory-doctorow…

* #ColoradoSprings: Guest of Honor at COSine, Jan 23-25
firstfridayfandom.org/cosine/

12/

Recent appearances:

* Enshittification with Four Ways to Change the World (Channel 4)
youtube.com/watch?v=tZQaEeuuI3…

* The Plan is to Make the Internet Worse. Forever. (Novarra Media)
youtube.com/watch?v=7wE8G-d7Sn…

* Enshittification (Future Knowledge)
futureknowledge.transistor.fm/…

* We have become slaves to Silicon Valley (Politics JOE)
youtube.com/watch?v=JzEUvh1r5-…

* How Enshittification is Destroying The Internet (Frontline Club)
youtube.com/watch?v=oovsyzB9L-…

13/

You can follow these posts as a daily blog at pluralistic.net: no ads, trackers, or data-collection!

Here's today's edition: pluralistic.net/2025/12/09/tem…

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If you prefer a newsletter, subscribe to the plura-list, which is ad-/tracker-free, and is utterly unadorned save a single daily emoji. Today's is "🐩". Suggestions solicited for future emojis!

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pluralistic.net/feed/

14/

I'm and the end of my tour for my new book, the international bestseller *Enshittification*!

My last two events are CCC in #Hamburg, Dec 27-30:
events.ccc.de/congress/2025/in…

and the Tattered Cover in #Denver, Jan 22:
eventbrite.com/e/cory-doctorow…

I hope you can make it!

eof/