Cory Doctorow facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Cory Doctorow
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Doctorow in 2019
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| Born | 17 July 1971 Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Occupation | Author, blogger |
| Nationality | Canadian, British, American |
| Genre | Science fiction, postcyberpunk |
| Notable works |
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| Notable awards |
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| Spouse |
Alice Taylor
(m. 2008) |
| Children | 1 |
Cory Efram Doctorow (born July 17, 1971) is a Canadian-British author, blogger, and journalist. He is best known for writing science fiction books and for his work as an activist. He believes that information, like his books, should be easy to share online.
Doctorow is a big supporter of Creative Commons. This is a type of copyright that lets people share and use creative work for free. He releases his own books with these licenses. His stories often explore topics like online privacy, sharing files, and how technology changes society. For many years, he was a co-editor of the popular blog Boing Boing.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Cory Doctorow was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. His family has roots in Eastern Europe. His father's family fled from Europe during World War II and eventually moved to Canada.
As a teenager, Doctorow went to a summer camp on Grindstone Island that he said was very important for his learning and growth. He later left high school but earned his diploma from a special school in Toronto. He attended four different universities but never finished a degree.
Career and Activism
In 1999, Doctorow co-founded a software company called Opencola. It was sold in 2003. After that, he moved to London, England. There, he worked for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), an organization that protects people's rights online. He helped start a similar group in the United Kingdom called the Open Rights Group.
In 2006, he left his job at the EFF to become a full-time writer. He has also been a visiting professor and guest scholar at several universities, including the University of Southern California and the University of Waterloo.
In 2015, Doctorow and his family moved from London to Los Angeles. He rejoined the EFF to campaign against digital rights management (DRM). DRM is technology that puts locks on digital files, like music and e-books, to stop people from sharing them. Doctorow believes DRM is unfair to people who have bought these products.
In January 2020, Doctorow left the blog Boing Boing after 19 years. He then started his own daily blog called Pluralistic.
Doctorow's Big Ideas
Doctorow has strong opinions about technology and freedom. He shares his ideas through his writing and public speaking.
Sharing and Copyright
Doctorow believes that copyright laws are too strict. He thinks people should be able to freely share digital media, like e-books and music, with their friends. He argues that copyright should only stop people from selling someone else's work without permission.
This is why he releases his books with Creative Commons licenses. This allows anyone to download and share the electronic versions of his books for free. He believes that giving his work away for free helps him sell more printed copies.
Enpoopification
Doctorow came up with the term "enshittification" (which he calls "enpoopification" in public) to describe a problem he sees with online platforms like social media apps and websites.
He says platforms often follow a pattern:
- First, they are great for users to attract a lot of people.
- Then, they start changing things to benefit their business customers. This can make the platform worse for regular users.
- Finally, they make the platform worse for business customers too, just to make more money for themselves.
He says this is why many popular websites and apps seem to get worse over time. The word became very popular and was chosen as the American Dialect Society's Word of the Year for 2023.
Famous Books
Doctorow has written many novels for both adults and young adults. His books often imagine the future and explore how technology affects people's lives.
Books for Young Adults
- Little Brother (2008): This bestselling novel is about a teenage hacker in San Francisco who fights back against the government's surveillance systems after a terrorist attack. It won several awards.
- Homeland (2013): This is the sequel to Little Brother.
- For the Win (2010): This book is about young gamers around the world who team up to fight against the wealthy people who employ them inside online games.
- Pirate Cinema (2012): This novel tells the story of a boy who gets kicked out of his house for illegally downloading movies and joins a group of artists and activists.
Other Novels
- Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (2003): His first novel, set in a future where death has been conquered and reputation is a type of money. It was the first novel ever released with a Creative Commons license.
- Walkaway (2017): A story about people who decide to leave regular society to build a new one based on sharing and technology.
- Attack Surface (2020): A novel for adults set in the same world as Little Brother.
- Red Team Blues (2023) and The Bezzle (2024): These books are part of a series about a 67-year-old forensic accountant named Martin Hench who solves high-tech financial crimes.
Personal Life
Doctorow married Alice Taylor in 2008. They have one daughter, Poesy. He became a British citizen in 2011 and also holds Canadian and American citizenship.
He is a supporter of the Tor network, which helps people use the internet privately and safely. He is also a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.
Images for kids
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Doctorow (left) with writer Jasmina Tešanović (center) and author Bruce Sterling (right) in 2006.
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Doctorow (left) with Burbank Mayor Konstantine Anthony during the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike.
See also
In Spanish: Cory Doctorow para niños
