The Internet Con

After explaining how chokepoint capitalism leads to us being locked in into enshittified walled gardens to extract our money from us, "The Internet Con" expands on this. Drawing on his years of internet & copyright/left related activism, Doctorow outlines how DRM and copyright are being used - i don't dare say misused, as it's been clearly been premediated - to keep switching costs high.

This book makes an amazing case for how interoperability can save us, and why we need to lobby both for proactive interoperability as well as for the right to engage in adversarial interoperability.

The Internet Con is the clearest expression of Doctorow's ongoing discussions around the ways monopolies have created significant harm to the Internet and how to fix it. The explanations of both the problems and solutions are accessible, and the book was a breeze to read.

Cory Doctorows Buch über die zerstörerischen Monopole in der Technologie ist fundamental wichtig, um den aktuellen Zustand des Internets zu verstehen. Auch seine Forderung nach Interoperabilität und der Legalisierung "konpetitiver" Interoperabilität ist richtig und wichtig. Das Buch wirkt aber teilweise lediglich wir ein Anhang zu seinem letzten Buch "Chokepoint Capitalism" und wiederholt dessen Argumente im Kern "nur". Auch finden sich leider - entgegen den Versprechungen - keine wirklich praktischen Tipps, wie Einzelne zumindest etwas dazu beitragen können, das Problem zu lösen. (Ich war da vorab aber ohnehin schon skeptisch bzgl. dieser Versprechungen, weil das Problem eben nicht individuell zu lösen ist.)

I haven't gone through an audiobook as quickly as I did this one.

Great exposition for those who haven't been paying attention to what's been going on "behind the scenes" of the Internet. It's my field so I was aware of most of it.

Cory is a helluva reader! Quite entertaining and felt...organic? The writing was good and all that but listening to it felt more like have a conversation with a friend who won't shut up rather than a book lecturing me.

If you're interested in what has become a major social influence you should read this, because these things DO influence your life, whether you like it or not.