News

Speaking on privacy at Battle of Ideas London this Sat

I'm speaking at London's Battle of Ideas this Saturday, Oct 31, on a panel called "Rethinking Privacy in an age of Disclosure and Sharing." The event goes 1:30-3:30 and there are still a few tickets left!

The increasing reach of information technology into all areas of life, from social networking websites to data sharing in public services, has thrown up a number of questions about privacy. Information about our medical records, financial circumstances and shopping habits is increasingly likely to be stored in electronic media that are out of our control. Some critics worry more about Tesco’s data-gathering than any ‘surveillance state’. The controversy about Google Maps’ Street View function, which captured thousands of unwitting people walking or standing on the streets, is a reminder that new technology constantly raises new questions about our privacy. So how worried should we be? Does the convenience of easily accessed information outweigh the danger of abuse? How are our conceptions of privacy changing? And following the success of the Pirate Party in Sweden, can we expect privacy to move up the political agenda in the UK too.

Rethinking Privacy in an age of Disclosure and Sharing

Free download of official Norwegian Little Brother

Samlaget, the Norwegian publisher for Little Brother, have released the full text of the book as a downloadable PDF. Samlaget have been incredibly forward-looking and a delight to work with. They brought me to Norway to participate in a debate on the future of copyright law at the Litteraturhuset, and my translator, editor, and publicist were all excited by the possibilities opened up by free digital distribution as a means to sell print books.

I often get asked why the foreign editions of my books aren't available as a free download and the answer is simple: I rarely have any direct contact with my non-English publishers, let alone the kind of close working relationship that has enabled me to sell my UK and US publishers on the idea. But every now and again, a publisher will be excited enough about this to opt to put materials online off their own bat, and this is always wonderful for me. Samlaget is one of those publishers; Ragnfrid, my editor there, was the first non-English-language editor to buy the rights to Little Brother, right after it was published in English (her husband downloaded a free copy from my site, and shoved it into her hands!).

Cory Doctorow Veslebror Ser Deg

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