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pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:

My last nationally bestselling novel was "The Bezzle," an ice-cold revenge story of high-tech finance crime starring the forensic accountant Martin Hench.

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865878/thebezzle

Signed copies from Chevalier's Books:

https://www.chevaliersbooks.com/product-page/the-bezzle

--

My latest nonfiction book is "The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation" from Verso Books:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

Signed copies available from Book Soup:

https://www.booksoup.com/book/9781804291245

Both are national bestsellers!

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pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:

Yesterday threads: Your Meta AI prompts are in a live, public feed; and more!

https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/114710661795354899

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pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:

#10yrsago What’s in the Pope’s barn-storming environmental message? https://www.wired.com/2015/06/popes-memo-climate-change-mind-blower/

#5yrsago Microsoft criticizes Apple's monopolism https://pluralistic.net/2020/06/19/art-of-the-deal/#honi-soit-qui-mal-y-pense

#5yrsago Austerity in disrepute https://pluralistic.net/2020/06/19/art-of-the-deal/#breadlines-r-us

#5yrsago Avia, c'est mort https://pluralistic.net/2020/06/19/art-of-the-deal/#avia

#5yrsago Trump's covid "test-tubes" are contaminated miniature soda bottles https://pluralistic.net/2020/06/19/art-of-the-deal/#art-of-the-deal

#5yrsago Trump wants to dismantle the OTF https://pluralistic.net/2020/06/19/art-of-the-deal/#save-otf

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pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:

Hey look at this

* Introducing the Fediverse: a New Era of Social Media https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRJHIJy5Nno

* Police use controversial AI tool that looks at people’s sex lives and beliefs https://inews.co.uk/news/police-use-controversial-ai-tool-sex-lives-beliefs-3747154

* Micro Macintosh https://www.tindie.com/products/djmason9/micro-macintosh/ (h/t Mitch Wagner)

* You don't need an API key to archive Twitter Data https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/ (h/t Nelson Minar)

* Talking Heads - Psycho Killer (Official Video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ54eImz88w (h/t Nelson Minar)

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pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:

Oregon bans the corporate practice of medicine: Karma for Unitedhealthcare, Part II.

https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/114715845544195419

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pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel *Picks and Shovels*.

Catch me in #PDX with BUNNIE HUANG at Barnes and Noble TODAY (Jun 20):

https://stores.barnesandnoble.com/event/9780062183697-0

And at the TUALATIN Public Library on SUNDAY (Jun 22):

https://www.tualatinoregon.gov/library/author-talk-cory-doctorow

More tour dates (#London, #Manchester) here:

http://martinhench.com

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pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: Oregon bans the corporate practice of medicine; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2025/06/20/the-doctor-will-gouge-you-now/

#Pluralistic

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Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
jef ("Jef Poskanzer") wrote:

It's the Solstice! Summer officially begins this evening at 7:41pm PDT. Here in the SF Bay Area, today will have 14h 43m 46s of daylight, tomorrow one second less. Earliest sunrise was a week ago, latest sunset will be on June 27/28 at 8:35:11pm.

Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
wendynather@infosec.exchange ("Wendy Nather") wrote:

@cstross @pluralistic The sad thing is that many of the bubble blowers I see are really old enough to know better. FOMO still plays an outsized role in this.

cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen") wrote:

Hey, David Byrne's got a new track out. "Everybody Laughs":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YM-BTJKIz0Q

Looks like the album it's on will be available on Bandcamp:

https://davidbyrne.bandcamp.com/album/who-is-the-sky

Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
ilumium@eupolicy.social ("Jan Penfrat") wrote:

I also stressed on the record how disappointed we are with how slow #Microsoft is with its compliance. For a company that claims to "take compliance seriously", it's unacceptable to still being "on that journey" 2.5 years in, being unable to even provide exact dates for compliance.

Event closed, time for lunch. Thanks for having followed along! 👋

#DMA #DigitalMarketsAct

Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
ilumium@eupolicy.social ("Jan Penfrat") wrote:

Haha this conversation with #Windows lawyers is so wild I don't even find time to post here about it.

So, I asked them how it's legal under the #DMA's Art 5(2) data cross-use prohibition to automatically sign up Windows users with #OneDrive and thereby sharing my personal data (login credentials) with the service.

The lawyers confirmed that this is what they do and argued strangely this was legal because "there are many ways to sign in to Windows". Local accounts anyone? 🤥

Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
ilumium@eupolicy.social ("Jan Penfrat") wrote:

So funny how the #Windows lawyer starts off by dissing competitor #Apple by highlighting how Windows has always been an open platform where users can install apps from wherever they want without having to ask for permission 🔥

#DMA #DigitalMarketsAct

Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
ilumium@eupolicy.social ("Jan Penfrat") wrote:

Again, Linkedin refuses to share actual data of how users interact with consent screens, only speaking of "non-minimal numbers" of European users who opted out.

Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
ilumium@eupolicy.social ("Jan Penfrat") wrote:

#Linkedin clarifies they do not use Europeans' data for training #LLM/#AI models.

I assume that statement does not apply to other #Microsoft products like #Windows and of course #Copilot.

Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
ilumium@eupolicy.social ("Jan Penfrat") wrote:

Linkedin rep says they did NOT explicitly test their compliance solutions for neutrality. 👀

And results are probably not be public. How the heck is the public then supposed to know if compliance is working?

Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
ilumium@eupolicy.social ("Jan Penfrat") wrote:

After a lengthy statement by the #Linkedin rep, read out from paper with a machine-like voice, first questions from the audience:

Consumer org @beuc wants to know whether Linkedin's A/B testing for compliance solutions have been neutral and if the test results will be published. Super important for compliance #transparency!

#DMA #DigitalMarketsAct

Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
ilumium@eupolicy.social ("Jan Penfrat") wrote:

The way #Microsoft (and other #gatekeepers) present #DMA compliance is soooo annoying!

The "regulatory dialogue" with the Commission, according to #Linkedin's competition director, was a way for the company to "mature and progress in our DMA journey."

It's not a "journey", it's a law that creates legal obligations and prohibitions for the company. Get over it and get it down already. 😠

pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel *Picks and Shovels*.

Catch me in #PDX with BUNNIE HUANG at Barnes and Noble TOMORROW (Jun 20):

https://stores.barnesandnoble.com/event/9780062183697-0

And at the #TUALATIN Public Library on SUNDAY (Jun 22):

https://www.tualatinoregon.gov/library/author-talk-cory-doctorow

More tour dates (#London, #Manchester) here:

http://martinhench.com

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pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:

Wage theft is notoriously hard to police, thanks to fear of retaliation and the precarity of victims of this crime.

The POWER Act passed as a result of the combined efforts of unions (SEIU, AFL-CIO) and the Working Families Party. Along with the Oregon Corporate Practice of Medicine ban, it shows how local, grassroots activism can protect everyday, working people from even the worst corporate criminals, even in Donald Trump's America.

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pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:

As Brock Hrehor writes for *The American Prospect*, the POWER Act was passed after Trump gutted the National Labor Relations Board and left it unable to protect American workers. The POWER Act tackles one of the most pernicious forms of crime in America: wage theft, which accounts for more losses than all property crime in America combined, with losses overwhelming borne by Black and brown workers, especially women.

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pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:

The POWER Act shifts the burden of proof for wage theft allegations from workers to their bosses and allows them to recover their stolen wages plus $2,000 in statutory damages per violation; it sets up a new fund (replenished with employer fines) that gives money to victims of retaliation, and it creates a public "bad boss" database of repeat offenders.

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pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:

Another reason to like state and local politics: local Democrats often suck *way less* than the necrotic federal Dem establishment. Some of them are even good! In Philly, Mayor Cherelle Parker just signed the Protect Our Workers, Enforce Rights (POWER) Act, which protects 750,000 workers from wage theft:

https://prospect.org/labor/2025-06-18-how-philadelphia-secured-basic-rights-for-750-000-workers/

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pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:

But it's good news when states and cities can use the American system to create sanctuary systems that welcome asylum seekers and treat them with dignity (which is why the American right, the standard bearer for "states' rights" when it came to school segregation and voter suppression, is now all-in on sending armed soldiers to terrorize their fellow Americans with assault rifles).

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pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:

The US federal system is a big, gnarly mess, but by design, it leaves a lot of power in local hands. That's bad news when local power is being used to ban trans people from peeing, or to attack school librarians, or to ban masking.

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pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:

(Fun fact: every noncompete clause is written by a lawyer, but the American Bar Association prohibits noncompetes *for* lawyers*).

Now it's time for those out-of-state healthcare looters' worst fears to be realized. It's time for the contagion to spread to other states.

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pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:

Nor could they warn other doctors away from falling prey to this trap because they were also bound by nondisparagement clauses.

The new bill, SB 951, passed out of the legislature and was signed by the governor earlier this month. It is now good law in Oregon, which means that corporations can't operate medical practices, and that medical personnel can't be subjected to noncompete clauses.

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pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:

Then, as icing on the cake, Unitedhealth's Oregon operation screwed over multiple, cancer-fightin lawmakers who were serving in the state-house as the bill was under debate. Combine this with testimony from doctors who described how they were unable to practice medicine after leaving Unitedhealth's terrible facilities because they had been trapped with noncompete clauses in their contracts.

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pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:

Optum "fired" thousands of patients, including some who were undergoing cancer treatment, on the basis that they weren't profitable enough to care for:

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/private-equity-unitedhealth-take

In the midst of all this, *another* Unitedhealth monopolist, Change Health, got hacked and virtually no one in America could get a prescription filled - worse, the hack exposed the health records of almost everyone in America, the largest health-related breach in US history:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/28/dealer-management-software/#antonin-scalia-stole-your-car

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pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:

But the bill passed anyway, thanks to a combination of two factors. First, during the bill's legislative adventure, Unitedhealth's Optum bought out the Oregon Medical Group and made working conditions so terrible that dozens of doctors quit, leaving thousands of rural patients (from predominantly Republican districts) without medical care.

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