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The Coming War on General Computation (2011)

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Why This Matters

Cory Doctorow's 2011 28C3 talk reframed the copyright fight as something bigger: an ongoing push to build computers that refuse to run code their owners choose. That argument has proven prescient as locked bootloaders, app store gatekeeping, DRM and remote attestation have become normal across phones, cars, medical devices and PCs. For consumers and developers alike, it remains the clearest explanation of why control over your own hardware is a policy question, not just a technical one.

Key Takeaways
Worth a Look

Cory Doctorow "Information Doesn't Want to Be Free — If Doctorow's 28C3 talk on the war against general-purpose computing hooked you, this book is the natural next step — it's his extended argument about DRM, copyright and who really controls your devices. Same sharp, fast-talking voice, in a form you can underline and argue with.

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← The Coming War on General Computation ( 2011 )

by → sister projects: Wikidata item Speech given at 28C3, the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin on December 26, 2011. Transcribed by Joshua Wise. This transcription attempts to be faithful to the original, but disfluencies have generally been removed (except where they appear to contribute to the text). Some words may have been mangled by the transcription; feel free to submit pull requests to correct them! Times are always marked in ((double parentheses)). 1219872 The Coming War on General Computation 2011 Cory Doctorow

Introducer:

Anyway, I believe I've killed enough time ... so, ladies and gentlemen, a person who in this crowd needs absolutely no introduction, Cory Doctorow!

(Audience applauds.)

Doctorow:

((27.0)) Thank you.

((32.0)) So, when I speak in places where the first language of the nation is not English, there is a disclaimer and an apology, because I'm one of nature's fast talkers. When I was at the United Nations at the World Intellectual Property Organization, I was known as the "scourge" of the simultaneous translation corps; I would stand up and speak, and turn around, and there would be window after window of translator, and every one of them would be doing this (Doctorow facepalms). (Audience laughs) So in advance, I give you permission when I start talking quickly to do this (Doctorow makes SOS motion) and I will slow down.

((74.1)) So, tonight's talk -- wah, wah, waaah (Doctorow makes 'fail horn' sound, apparently in response to audience making SOS motion; audience laughs) -- tonight's talk is not a copyright talk. I do copyright talks all the time; questions about culture and creativity are interesting enough, but to be honest, I'm quite sick of them. If you want to hear freelance writers like me bang on about what's happening to the way we earn our living, by all means, go and find one of the many talks I've done on this subject on YouTube. But, tonight, I want to talk about something more important -- I want to talk about general purpose computers.

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