Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

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Pluralistic: Sorry, eh (13 Jan 2026)


Today's links


A Canadian flag, its elements replaced with circuit boards. In the foreground, a bent-double, exhausted Uncle Sam trudges over rocky terrain, shlepping a giant sack on his back. Centered in the maple leaf is the word SORRY.

Sorry, eh (permalink)

Like all the best Americans, I'm Canadian, and while I have lived abroad for most of this century, I still hew faithfully to our folkways, which is why I'd like to start this essay by apologizing.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry! I'm a technology writer, which means I'm supposed to be encouraging you to throw hundreds of billions of dollars at the money-losingest technology in human history, AI. No one has ever lost as much money as the AI companies.

There is no way to operate one of Nvidia's big AI-optimized GPUs without losing money. The owners of these GPUs who have lost the least money are the ones who rushed into buying GPUs without ensuring they'd have electricity to power them, and have been forced to leave their GPUs to age in warehouses. The minute they plug in those GPUs, they'll start losing money, and the more they use them, the more money they'll lose.

I'm sorry. As a technology writer, I'm supposed to be telling you that this bet will some day pay off, because one day we will have shoveled so many words into the word-guessing program that it wakes up and learns how to actually do the jobs it is failing spectacularly at today. This is a proposition akin to the idea that if we keep breeding horses to run faster and faster, one of them will give birth to a locomotive. Humans possess intelligence, and machines do not. The difference between a human and a word-guessing program isn't how many words the human knows.

I'm sorry. I know that when we talk about "digital sovereignty," we're obliged to talk about how we can build more data-centres that we can fill up with money-losing chips from American silicon monopolists in the hopes of destroying as many jobs as possible while blowing through our clean energy goals and enshittifying as much of our potable water as possible.

I don't have any advice for how to do that. I'm sorry!

As Canada contemplates our response to the collapse of the American empire and its alliances with the world, the cornerstone of our current strategy is sacrificing our dollars, water and energy in order to become more dependent on America, in a weird and improbable bet that we will figure out how to make millions of Canadians unemployed. I'm sorry, that just doesn't sound like a great idea to me.

If I can beg your indulgence, I'd like to propose an alternative.

Back in 2012, Canada passed Bill C-11, the Copyright Modernization Act. It's a law that bans Canadian companies from modifying America's digital tech exports. We passed it because the US threatened us with tariffs:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/05/08/who-broke-the-internet/#bruce-lehman

Thanks to Bill C-11, a Canadian company can't sell jailbreaking kits for phones and consoles, which would let Canadian sellers offer goods and services to Canadian buyers outside of US app stores, sidestepping the 30% app tax that Apple, Google, Microsoft, Sony and others impose on our digital economy.

Thanks to Bill C-11, a Canadian company can't sell mechanics a universal diagnostic tool that turns every "check engine" light into a useful error message. Instead, Canadian mechanics have to send $10,000/year/manufacturer to America for a proprietary car diagnosis kit.

Thanks to Bill C-11, a Canadian company can't offer ink cartridge manufacturers software that will ensure their cartridges work in the printers Canadians buy from the American inkjet cartel. As a result, Canadians have to spend $10,000/gallon on ink, making it the most expensive fluid a Canadian civilian can purchase without a government permit.

Thanks to Bill C-11, a Canadian company can't sell our farmers software that lets them start using their tractors as soon as they've fixed them. Instead, after a Canadian farmer fixes their tractor, they have to wait for a service call from a rep for a US ag-tech monopolist who'll type an unlock code into the tractor's keyboard and charge the farmer a couple hundred bucks for this "service."

Thanks to Bill C-11, a Canadian company can't revive one of the most successful technologies in modern history: the home video recorder. Remember those? First we had VCRs, then we had digital successors like the Tivo. Canadian law says you're allowed to record the video that comes into your home, whether by broadcast, cable, satellite or streaming. But Bill C-11 bans a Canadian company from selling you a gadget that lets you save the video you get in an app or from a set-top box.

It's crazy: we have actually uninvented the VCR! You know how everyone is pissed off about their favourite shows being yanked from the streaming services? Repeal C-11 and you could just save those shows forever. Repeal C-11 and you'd kill the grinchy little racket that services like Prime pull, where Christmas cartoons are in the free tier from March to November, and cost $3.99 to watch between November and March. Just tape 'em in August and save 'em for later!

It doesn't stop there. Remember when Facebook banned all links to the news in Canada? Repeal C-11 and a Canadian company could sell you an alternative Facebook app that puts the news back into your feed! Repeal C-11 and Canadians could get an alternative app that replaces all the streaming services, letting you search and stream every service you have an account for in one place, mixing in Canadian content from the NFB, public broadcasters, and commercial services.

Virtually every Canadian ministry, corporation and household is locked into a US Big Tech silo. Any of these could be shut down at a single word from Trump to any of the tech giants who've lined up to do his bidding. Repeal C-11 and we can extract all our data from these walled gardens/prisons and get it onto auditable, trustworthy, transparent open source software, hosted in data-centres located safely on Canadian soil.

If there's one thing Canadians are good it, it's going to other countries and extracting their wealth. We're world champions at it.

America's tech monopolies have sequestered trillions of dollars worth of monopoly rents on their balance sheets. This is dead capital, being pissed up the wall on nonsense like stock buybacks and data-centres and grotesque executive bonuses.

As Jeff Bezos said to the publishers: "Your margin is my opportunity."

America's tech trillions represent a rich and readily accessible seam that we can extract – safely, from our own country! – and turn into our billions, and an exportable line of products that the whole world would beat a path to our door to buy.

Look, I'm sorry. I don't have any ideas for how Canada can get to a better future by lighting billions on fire in a bet on a failing technology whose dubious profitability depends on ruining our job market, our power grid and our water supply, which will tie the American political situation to our ankles.

All I've got is an idea for how we can make insanely profitable products that people really want to buy, that will insulate us from cyberattacks by US tech giants who are in thrall to Trump, and that Americans will pay us to use in order to free themselves from the tech giants who abuse them, too.

I'm really sorry. I know it's out of step with the times, but all I have is ideas that make money, make us safer, make us richer, and make our technology better.

On the other hand, those chatbots sure are cute. It's funny when they "hallucinate."

Hey look at this (permalink)


A shelf of leatherbound history books with a gilt-stamped series title, 'The World's Famous Events.'

Object permanence (permalink)

#25yrsago Hey, Mark made me a guest editor! https://memex.craphound.com/2001/01/13/hey-mark-made-me-a/

#15yrsago Woz on Network Neutrality https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2010/12/steve-wozniak-to-the-fcc-keep-the-internet-free/68294/

#15yrsago Disney World’s awful Tiki Room catches fire https://web.archive.org/web/20110116093950/http://thedisneyblog.com/2011/01/12/fire-reported-at-magic-kingdom-tiki-room/

#10yrsago For the first time in 15 years, there’s a new Violent Femmes album https://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2016/01/13/462656061/hear-a-song-from-violent-femmes-first-album-in-15-years

#10yrsago 3D Systems abandons its Cube printers, but DRM means you can’t buy filament from anyone else https://michaelweinberg.org/post/137045828005/free-the-cube

#10yrsago Why Moveon endorsed Bernie Sanders https://medium.com/middle-of-nowhere-center-of-everything/the-top-5-reasons-moveon-members-voted-to-endorse-bernie-with-the-most-votes-and-widest-margin-in-78c2e69990ec#.py5rdi9xc

#10yrsago Sneak-privatization of public schools: attacking teachers, unions and standards https://web.archive.org/web/20160112065749/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/01/07/a-primer-on-the-damaging-movement-to-privatize-public-schools/

#10yrsago Income inequality makes the 1% sad, too https://hbr.org/2016/01/income-inequality-makes-whole-countries-less-happy

#5yrsago Will Biden bust trusts? https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/13/two-decades/#thanks-obama

#5yrsago 20 years a blogger https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/13/two-decades/#hfbd

Upcoming appearances (permalink)

A photo of me onstage, giving a speech, pounding the podium.


A screenshot of me at my desk, doing a livecast.

Recent appearances (permalink)


A grid of my books with Will Stahle covers..

Latest books (permalink)


A cardboard book box with the Macmillan logo.

Upcoming books (permalink)

  • "Unauthorized Bread": a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2026

  • "Enshittification, Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It" (the graphic novel), Firstsecond, 2026

  • "The Memex Method," Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2026

  • "The Reverse-Centaur's Guide to AI," a short book about being a better AI critic, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, June 2026


Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources:

Currently writing: "The Post-American Internet," a sequel to "Enshittification," about the better world the rest of us get to have now that Trump has torched America (1037 words today, 5059 total)

  • "The Reverse Centaur's Guide to AI," a short book for Farrar, Straus and Giroux about being an effective AI critic. LEGAL REVIEW AND COPYEDIT COMPLETE.

  • "The Post-American Internet," a short book about internet policy in the age of Trumpism. PLANNING.

  • A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING

This work – excluding any serialized fiction – is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution.

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"When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla

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ISSN: 3066-764X

2026-01-13 17:27:22

Formula 1 News

Formula 1® - The Official F1® Website

Racing Bulls unveil race suits for 2026

Ahead of their joint launch event with Red Bull this week, Racing Bulls have revealed the race suits that their drivers will be wearing in 2026.
2026-01-13 17:25:05

kottke.org

Jason Kottke's weblog, home of fine hypertext products

Astronomers have discovered an “almost-galaxy” called Cloud-9 (no, really), a failed galaxy...

Astronomers have discovered an “almost-galaxy” called Cloud-9 (no, really), a failed galaxy that contains no stars. “There’s nothing like this that we’ve found so far in the universe.”

💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

2026-01-13 17:20:48

Slashdot

News for nerds, stuff that matters

Signal Creator Marlinspike Wants To Do For AI What He Did For Messaging

Moxie Marlinspike, the engineer who created Signal Messenger and set a new standard for private communications, is now trialing Confer, an open source AI assistant designed to make user data unreadable to platform operators, hackers, and law enforcement alike. Confer relies on two core technologies: passkeys that generate a 32-byte encryption keypair stored only on user devices, and trusted execution environments on servers that prevent even administrators from accessing data. The code is open source and cryptographically verifiable through remote attestation and transparency logs.

Marlinspike likens current AI interactions to confessing into a "data lake." A court order last May required OpenAI to preserve all ChatGPT user logs including deleted chats, and CEO Sam Altman has acknowledged that even psychotherapy sessions on the platform may not stay private.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

2026-01-13 17:20:05

JPMorgan Warns 10% Credit Card Rate Cap Would Backfire on Consumers and Economy

JPMorgan Chase's chief financial officer Jeremy Barnum pushed back hard on Tuesday against President Donald Trump's proposed 10% cap on credit card interest rates, calling the measure "very bad for consumers" and "very bad for the economy" during a call with reporters.

The proposed one-year cap, which Trump has said he wants implemented starting January 20, sent banking stocks tumbling last week and prompted financial groups to mount a defense. Barnum said JPMorgan would have to "change the business significantly and cut back" if the cap takes effect, adding that he believes the policy would produce "the exact opposite consequence to what the administration wants."

Wall Street analysts remain skeptical the proposal will survive, noting that only Congress can enact such a measure. The average credit card interest rate in November stood at 20.97%, according to Federal Reserve data. Financial industry groups have countered that a 10% cap would result in millions of American households and small businesses losing access to credit entirely. A banking industry body called the potential impact "devastating."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

2026-01-13 17:20:05

Wel.nl

Minder lezen, Meer weten.

VS bestempelen Moslimbroederschap als terroristische organisatie

WASHINGTON (AFP) - De Verenigde Staten hebben de Moslimbroederschap in Egypte, Libanon en Jordanië aangemerkt als een buitenlandse terroristische organisatie. Afgelopen november gaf de Amerikaanse president Donald Trump al aan hiervoor de eerste stappen te hebben gezet.

Het land beschuldigt de Moslimbroederschap ervan gewelddadige aanvallen tegen Israël en Amerikaanse bondgenoten te steunen of aan te moedigen.

Volgens het Amerikaanse ministerie van Financiën doen de afdelingen zich voor als legitieme maatschappelijke organisaties "terwijl ze achter de schermen expliciet en enthousiast terroristische groeperingen zoals Hamas steunen".

Meerdere landen in het Midden-Oosten hebben al actie ondernomen tegen de Moslimbroederschap vanwege vermeende terroristische activiteiten. Egypte, waar de beweging vandaan komt, verwelkomt het besluit van de Verenigde Staten.


2026-01-13 17:13:39

Boeing ontvangt voor het eerst sinds 2018 meer orders dan Airbus

ARLINGTON (ANP/BLOOMBERG/AFP) - Boeing heeft voor het eerst in zeven jaar meer vliegtuigorders binnengekregen dan de Europese concurrent Airbus. De Amerikaanse vliegtuigbouwer kreeg vorig jaar in totaal 1175 bestellingen voor verkeersvliegtuigen, terwijl dat er 1000 waren voor Airbus.

Met 600 afgeleverde vliegtuigen blijft Boeing wel achter bij Airbus. Die leverde in 2025 in totaal 793 toestellen. Desondanks is het de beste prestatie van de Amerikaanse fabrikant sinds 2018. Het bedrijf profiteert van de toenemende orders door steun van het Witte Huis. Zo ontving Boeing de grootste bestelling in de geschiedenis van het bedrijf van luchtvaartmaatschappij Qatar Airways, terwijl Trump in mei door het Midden-Oosten reisde.

Ook is de financiële positie van de vliegtuigbouwer hersteld, omdat het bedrijf het productietempo wist op te voeren na een aantal crises. Zo waren er stakingen in 2024 en twee fatale crashes met een Boeing 737 MAX in 2018 en 2019. Die vliegtuigen werden vervolgens een tijd aan de grond gehouden.


2026-01-13 17:03:47

VK: Voorpagina

Volkskrant.nl biedt het laatste nieuws, opinie en achtergronden

Gelande Iraniërs in Istanbul getuigen van gruweldaden regime: ‘Lichamen worden gestapeld in vriescontainers’

2026-01-13 17:13:00

Striptekenaar Scott Adams schiep popu­laire kantoor­held Dilbert, maar struikelde over racisme

2026-01-13 17:07:25

Rijnmond - Nieuws

Het laatste nieuws van vandaag over Rotterdam, Feyenoord, het verkeer en het weer in de regio Rijnmond

Wilde achtervolging nadat verdacht pakketje over hek van gevangenis wordt gegooid

Een wilde achtervolging heeft zich dinsdag aan het einde van de middag afgespeeld. Dat gebeurde toen de politie een verdachte auto bij Detentiecentrum Rotterdam zag, waarna een pakketje over het hek werd gegooid. Na een rit door Rotterdam reed de Koninklijke Marechaussee de auto klem in Schiedam, bij de rotonde van de Slimme Watering en de Zwaluwlaan.
2026-01-13 17:03:48