This day in history

2003, 2008, 2013, 2018.

Cory Doctorow
2 min readDec 6, 2023

#20yrsago Walt Disney’s FBI files https://memex.craphound.com/2003/12/06/walt-disneys-fbi-files/

#20yrsago Ska-anthem about duct tape https://web.archive.org/web/20031209020640/http://www.ducktapeclub.com/contests/roll/lyrics.asp?entryid=131

#15yrsago Britain’s “Great Firewall” set to restrict access to Wikipedia https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/British_ISPs_restrict_access_to_Wikipedia_amid_child_pornography_allegations

#15yrsago Workers in Argentina taking over dead factories and running them democratically https://www.newstatesman.com/long-reads/2007/08/argentina-workers-movement

#10yrsago What Nelson Mandela’s life tells us about the legitimacy of “democratic nations” https://memex.craphound.com/2013/12/06/what-nelson-mandelas-life-tells-us-about-the-legitimacy-of-democratic-nations/

#10yrsago Medieval kids’ birch-bark doodles https://erikkwakkel.tumblr.com/post/67681966023/medieval-kids-doodles-on-birch-bark-heres

#10yrsago Botnet of 20,000 point-of-sale machines https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/12/credit-card-fraud-comes-of-age-with-first-known-point-of-sale-botnet/

#5yrsago Jamie Dimon is getting fed up with the protesters who “occupy” him everywhere he goes https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-03/wherever-dimon-goes-activists-turn-his-speeches-into-spectacles

#5yrsago Wells Fargo blames “computer glitch” for its improper foreclosure on 545 homes https://www.cbsnews.com/news/wells-fargo-loan-modification-error-homeowners-who-went-into-foreclosure-seek-answers/

#5yrsago The third annual AI Now report: 10 more ways to make AI safe for human flourishing https://web.archive.org/web/20181206184028/https://ainowinstitute.org/AI_Now_2018_Report.pdf

#5yrsago Europe’s biggest sports leagues and movie studios disavow #Article13, say it will give #BigTech even more control https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/12/letter-eu-european-film-companies-and-sports-leagues-disavow-article-13-say-it

#5yrsago On January 1, America gets its public domain back: join us at the Internet Archive on Jan 25 to celebrate https://creativecommons.org/2018/12/05/join-us-for-a-grand-re-opening-of-the-public-domain/

It’s EFF’s Power Up Your Donation Week: this week, donations to the Electronic Frontier Foundation are matched 1:1, meaning your money goes twice as far. I’ve worked with EFF for 22 years now and I have always been — and remain — a major donor, because I’ve seen firsthand how effective, responsible and brilliant this organization is. Please join me in helping EFF continue its work!

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