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Archive of stories in "Copyfight"

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Cory Doctorow

·

4d ago

Formalities

When it comes to AI, the Copyright Office is restoring copyright to its proper status, as something you have to work to get.

A humanoid robot with blue skin pocked with transparent patches that show circuit boards beneath. Its eyes are yellow copyright symbols. It is admiring its reflection in a mirror supported by a gold robot. The reflection of the robot has red x’s in its eyes instead of copyright symbols.

Cory Doctorow

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Oct 12

How labor rights rescued Ultima from a monopolist

If you care about labor justice and artists’ rights, stop focusing on copyright.

Cory Doctorow

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Jul 31

Better to beg forgiveness

Don’t ring the doorbell at the house of no unless you absolutely must.

Better to beg forgiveness

Cory Doctorow

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Apr 23

The (other) problem with automatic conversion of free software to proprietary software

You can’t add ANY license to a public domain work.

The surface of Mars. In the foreground are a gnu and a giant pump-magazine killer robot whose head is being piloted by Tux the penguin. At their feet lies a dead robot, its head smashed in. Image: Muhammad Mahdi Karim (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blue_Wildebeest,_Ngorongoro.jpg GNU FDL https://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl-1.3.html

Cory Doctorow

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Apr 2

It’s extremely good that Claude’s source-code leaked

Careful what you wish for.

Cory Doctorow

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Mar 3

Supreme Court saves artists from AI

Just because you’re on their side, it doesn’t mean they’re on your side.

The Supreme Court building. It has been tinted sepia. Floating in front of it are a 1920s-era Supreme Court, tinted blue-green, their heads replaced with the glaring red eyes of HAL 9000 from Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey,’ and their hands tinted hot pink. They have been distorted with a ripple effect and TV scan lines. The sky is full of dark clouds. Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Cory Doctorow

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Dec 17, 2025

Happy Public Domain Day 2026!

The best way to cut through the hellishly complex thicket and bring our culture back to life.

A collage of images representing creative works entering the public domain on Jan 1, 2026.

Cory Doctorow

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Dec 5, 2025

The Reverse-Centaur’s Guide to Criticizing AI

My speech for U Washington’s Neuroscience, AI and Society lecture series.

https://pluralistic.net/2025/12/05/pop-that-bubble/#u-washington The staring red eye of HAL 9000 from Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey. In the center is the poop emoji from the cover of the US edition of ‘Enshittification,’ with angry eyebrows and a black, grawlix-scrawled bar over its mouth. The poop emoji’s eyes have also been replaced with the HAL eye. Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.

Cory Doctorow

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Dec 17, 2024

Happy Public Domain Day 2025 to all who celebrate

A new bumper crop, with many more to come!

A collage displaying the works that are entering the public domain in 2025.

Cory Doctorow

·

Nov 18, 2024

Harpercollins wants authors to sign away AI training rights

Rights come from power.

A bookcase. Rupert Murdoch’s grinning head rests between a gap in the books. Centered in his forehead is the glaring red eye of HAL 9000 from Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey.’ Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en — Eva Rinaldi (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rupert_Murdoch_-_Flickr_-_Eva_Rinaldi_Celebrity_and_Live_Music_Photographer.jpg CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativeco