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Cory Doctorow
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Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity, Copyright, and the Future of the Future Paperback – 15 Sept. 2008

by Cory Doctorow (Author)
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Hailed by Bruce Sterling as 'a political activist, gizmo freak, junk collector, programmer, entrepreneur, and all-around Renaissance geek', the Internet's favourite high-tech culture maven is celebrated with the first collection of his infamous articles, essays, and polemics. Irreverently championing free speech and universal access to information - even if it's just a free download of the newest Britney Spears MP3 - he leads off with a mutinous talk given at Microsoft on digital rights management, insisting that they stop treating their customers as criminals.Readers will discover how America chose Happy Meal toys over copyright, why Facebook is taking a faceplant, how the Internet is basically just a giant Xerox machine, why Wikipedia is a poor cousin of "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy", and how to enjoy free e-books. Practising what he preaches, all of the author's books, including this one, are simultaneously released in print and on the Internet under Creative Commons licenses that encourage their reuse and sharing. He argues persuasively that this practice has considerably increased his sales by enlisting readers to promote his work. Accessible to geeks and non-techies alike, this is a timely collection from an author who effortlessly surfs the zeitgeist while always generating his own wave.
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  1. Print length
    213 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Tachyon Publications
  4. Publication date
    15 Sept. 2008
  5. Dimensions
    12.8 x 1.65 x 20.17 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    1892391813
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1892391810
  8. See all details
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Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
11 global ratings

Top reviews from United Kingdom

Anders Rune Jensen
4.0 out of 5 stars Lots of good stories but can be a little repetitive
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 January 2009
Content, is a new book by Cory Doctorow filled with small essays. Essays ranging from 2 to 10-15 pages in length, so they are quickly read but still takes some time to digest because of the depth. Cory knows his stuff and it really shows. The book includes the now infamous DRM talk at Microsoft. Not that they have learned much from it it seems :) And a lot of other good stuff, including stories on how he deals with copyright in an internet age using Creative Commons.

The good thing about the short stories is that they are easy to go through, so I found myself just wanting to read one more. The bad side of putting that many short stories in there is that the stories can be a little tiring when many of them are about the same subject.
3 people found this helpful
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bic
5.0 out of 5 stars A pleasure to read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 October 2015
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I've always liked Doctorow's writings, this compilation of copyright related thoughts and analyses didn't let me down one bit although the industry and legislation changed substantially since he wrote most of the articles (2007 onwards).
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GOTTON
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting subject matter but far too repetitive
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 June 2016
Content by Cory Doctorow suffered from the same problems as other collections of essays and articles that I have read, mainly repetitiveness and a lack of overall message.

Being as each article in its original format needs to be self-contained, it becomes obvious why an author might have to reintroduce a subject time and again. This is where I think that these books fail.

If you want to collect various essays and articles into a single book then I think it would be more beneficial to edit each article so that they fit together as part of a cohesive narrative that carries the reader through the information in the most economical way possible. Will this create a lot of work for the author? Of course it will. But we will be left with a much more streamlined book that is easier to read and less repetitive.

If you have read 'Information Doesn't Want to be Free: Laws for the Internet Age', a book by the same author that I highly recommend, you will find a much more cohesive version of the information in this book. That's not to say that this book does not have new and useful information, but there wasn't quite enough of it for my tastes.

Overall this is still an interesting read, possibly one that would be better had I not already read Information Doesn't Want to be Free, and was looking at this material with fresh eyes. It is well written and well researched, but I felt that it was slightly lacking overall.

My final thought would be to repeat my recommendation of two paragraphs ago. Read that book which tackles the same important subject, but does so with more skill in my opinion.
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Hush
3.0 out of 5 stars Content
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 December 2009
Covers a range of interesting ideas, but is often repetitious in this coverage: a consequence of this title being the accumulation of previously published pieces. However, it remains a readable and broadly ranging introduction to a terrain that is highly pertinent to the legal wars being fought around ownership of ideas in contemporary society.
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

John Jensen
4.0 out of 5 stars was a gift for my son
Reviewed in the United States on 14 July 2013
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I bought this book a couple years ago and enjoyed the author's writing.

My son is now involved in film-making and editing for an add agency in LA. Since "content" is a broad issue that involves his own work I sent it to him for whatever relevance it may have. But, a lot of water has gone under the bridge since Doctorow wrote this one. Just the same, it serves as a marker for what "content" was recently all about,and those in the business of knowing may need that marker for making judgements now or in the future.

john jensen
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FrankT
5.0 out of 5 stars Cory's book is a great resource on DRM and copyright problems.
Reviewed in the United States on 20 October 2008
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I've read or seen most of the material in this book online and am a big fan of Cory's work. I thought this would be a great resource to have instead of a bunch of print outs or bookmarks. Cory Doctorow has some of the best thought out arguments against DRM and for digital freedoms, pointing out tons of interesting historical examples along the way. Great read!
4 people found this helpful
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KaGey3
3.0 out of 5 stars Stop calling WRITING "CONTENT"
Reviewed in the United States on 27 December 2013
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Jesus, even a real writer refers to what was once a noble intellectual craft as more of a weight measurement, i.e. "we have too much CONTENT on this page. Can you shorten it?" "oh, does it read long?" "No, i didn't read it. Just shorten it." (slice of a writer's life...)

Come on Cory, make your next book a little less visionary and a little more about WRITING.
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Ken Kennedy
4.0 out of 5 stars Great overview of Doctorow's non-fiction work
Reviewed in the United States on 19 September 2008
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Excellent way for someone relatively new to Cory's non-fiction to come up to speed quickly. A great overview of his thoughts on copyright, the Internet, and society. And even if you're a dyed-in-the-wool True Fan (like me), you'll probably find something new, and you'll definitely enjoy having the essays collected in one place. His Microsoft DRM essay is included, which is a favorite of mine. Well worth picking up if you have any interest whatsoever in topics like the future of copyright, media and the Internet, etc.
4 people found this helpful
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bbmmrr
5.0 out of 5 stars Great gift, great price!
Reviewed in the United States on 1 June 2012
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I bought this as a gift for my brother and he loves it! Already read it twice. Ordering was so easy, and i had the book within 3 days- what could be better?
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