Hey, Toronto! I’m coming home tonight for the Canadian launch of For the Win! I’ll see you at 6:30PM at the Merril Collection on the lower level of the Lillian H. Smith Building, 239 College Street, just east of Spadina.

Here’s an interview I conducted with the good folks at BSC Review, about For the Win, writing, and related subjects.

Just a reminder: I’ll be in Toronto this Friday, June 4 for the Canadian launch of For the Win. We’re launching it at the Merril Collection (239 College Ave, east of Spadina), starting 6:30PM. The good folks from Bakka-Phoenix Books will be on-hand with hardcopies to buy, as well.

My latest Guardian column, “Why the Digital Economy Act simply won’t work,” warns that now that the British state has assumed responsibility for maximizing the profits of entertainment companies, it will have to take ever-more-restrictive measures against its own people:

And because once the state decides that it has a duty to police the internet to maximise the profits of a few entertainment companies (no matter what the public expense), it sets itself on a path of ever-more-restrictive measures. Once disconnection drives downloaders to make use of SSL-based proxies, watch for Big Content to inveigle their friends in parliament to enact laws prohibiting the use of virtual private networks – never mind that these are the best practice of anyone trying to safeguard a corporate or organisational network.

Once the Act drives downloaders to use SSL-encrypted services that are harder to monitor, watch for the entertainment lobby to ask for great swaths of the internet to be blocked by the Great Firewall of Britain that the Act also provides for.

Once you swallow a spider to catch a fly, you’re on a course to swallow a bird to catch the spider, a cat to catch the bird, and so on until you swallow a horse – and every toddler knows that happens next.

Why the Digital Economy Act simply won’t work

Eric Moreau sez,

You may remember I translate novels for French publishing houses and articles for a website and non-profit called Framasoft.
This week-end, Framasoft took part in an event called “Ubuntu Party” dedicated to promoting the Ubuntu distro, free software and free culture. This event took place in the Cité des Sciences de La Villette in Paris.

We were there with several other non-profits such as April (free software advocates) Mozilla (you may have heard of them already) and La Quadrature du Net (leading the fight in Europe for Net neutrality). Now let me get to the point : with a dozen other GNU/Linux enthusiasts (some with us in the room we were in, others online), we did a “translation sprint” (which we dubbed “Traducthon”) during which we translated your article “Why I won’t buy an iPad“.

How did we proceed ? We took your article and put it in a free software called Etherpad, then translated it live in front of visitors (who could get involved too) on a one and only document broadcast on a screen for everyone to see. We were all using free software only (ubuntu, firefox and an Etherpad installed on our own server. We only had three hours to do it and achieved our goal.

Now our translation is out on our blog free for everyone to read, share and remix.

Sam Ruff translated Little Brother into Pig Latin!

I’mway away eniorsay atway Esarcay Avezchay ighhay inway Ansay
Ancisco’sfray unnysay Issionmay istrictday, andway atthay
akesmay emay oneway ofway ethay ostmay urveilledsay eoplepay
inway ethay orldway. Ymay amenay isway Arcusmay Allowyay, utbay
ackbay enwhay isthay orystay artsstay, Iway asway oinggay ybay
way1nay5tay0nay. Onouncedpray “Instonway.”

*Otnay* onouncedpray “Oubleday-ouyay-oneway-ennway-ivefay-eetay-
erozay-ennway” — unlessway ou’reyay away uelessclay
isciplinaryday officerway o’swhay arfay enoughway ehindbay ethay
urvecay atthay ouyay illstay allcay ethay Internetway “ethay
informationway uperhighwaysay.”

Iway owknay ustjay uchsay away uelessclay ersonpay, andway ishay
amenay isway Edfray Ensonbay, oneway ofway eethray icevay-
incipalspray atway Esarcay Avezchay. E’shay away uckingsay
estchay oundway ofway away umanhay eingbay. Utbay ifway ou’reyay
oinggay otay avehay away ailerjay, etterbay away uelessclay
oneway anthay oneway o’swhay eallyray onway ethay allbay.