This day in history

2009, 2014, 2019, 2023.

Cory Doctorow
2 min readMay 21, 2024

For the rest of May, my bestselling solarpunk utopian novel The Lost Cause (2023) is available as a $2.99, DRM-free ebook!

#15yrsago Got a cell-phone? FCC claims the right to search your house https://www.wired.com/2009/05/fcc-raid/

#15yrsago Infinite Typewriters: Goats webcomic collection is transcendantly silly without being forced https://memex.craphound.com/2009/05/20/infinite-typewriters-goats-webcomic-collection-is-transcendantly-silly-without-being-forced/

#15yrsago Fight terrorism by arresting terrorists, not by looking at our genitals at airports https://edition.cnn.com/2009/TRAVEL/05/18/airport.security.body.scans/

#15yrsago Lessig reviews Helprin’s embarrassing infinite copyright, bloggers-are-stupid, Creative Commons is evil book https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-solipsist-and-the-int_b_206021

#10yrsago Podcast: Firefox’s adoption of closed-source DRM breaks my heart https://ia802206.us.archive.org/30/items/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_273_fixed/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_273_Firefoxs_adoption_of_closed-source_DRM_breaks_my_heart.mp3

#10yrsago Interviews with & portraits of sex-machine makers https://web.archive.org/web/20140903013303/http://designyoutrust.com/2011/08/sex-machines-photographs-and-interviews-by-timothy-archibald/

#10yrsago Steve Wozniak explains Net Neutrality to the FCC https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2010/12/steve-wozniak-to-the-fcc-keep-the-internet-free/68294/

#10yrsago Disneyland’s original prospectus revealed! https://memex.craphound.com/2014/05/20/disneylands-original-prospectus-revealed/

#10yrsago Jo Walton’s “My Real Children”: infinitely wise, sad and uplifting novel https://memex.craphound.com/2014/05/20/jo-waltons-my-real-children-infinitely-wise-sad-and-uplifting-novel/

#5yrsago That billionaire who paid off a graduating class’s student loans also supports the hedge-fundie’s favorite tax loophole https://archive.nytimes.com/dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/04/10/a-private-equity-titan-with-a-narrow-focus-and-broad-aims/

#5yrsago TOSsed out: EFF catalogs the perverse ways that platform moderation policies hurt the people they’re supposed to protect https://www.eff.org/tossedout

#5yrsago How Warner Chappell was able to steal revenues from 25% of a popular Minecraft vlogger’s channels https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZplh8rd-I4

#5yrsago Notorious forum for account-thieves hacked, login and messages stolen and dumped https://krebsonsecurity.com/2019/05/account-hijacking-forum-ogusers-hacked/

#5yrsago A look back at the sales training for Radio Shack’s Model 100, a groundbreaking early laptop https://www.fastcompany.com/90349201/heres-how-radioshack-sold-its-breakthrough-laptop-circa-1983

#5yrsago DRM and terms-of-service have ended true ownership, turning us into “tenants of our own devices” https://www.wired.com/story/right-to-repair-tenants-on-our-own-devices/

#5yrsago Research shows that 2FA and other basic measures are incredibly effective at preventing account hijacking https://security.googleblog.com/2019/05/new-research-how-effective-is-basic.html

#5yrsago A deep dive into the internal politics, personalities and social significance of the Googler Uprising https://fortune.com/longform/inside-googles-civil-war/

#1yrago Dumping links like Galileo dumped the orange https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/20/the-missing-links/#plunderphonics

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