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 17 July 1971) is a Canadian-British writer, blogger, and journalist. He is best known for his exciting science fiction stories. He also used to be a co-editor for the popular blog Boing Boing.
Cory Doctorow is a big supporter of making copyright laws more open. He believes in sharing digital works freely. He uses Creative Commons licenses for many of his books. This means people can share his digital books without paying. His stories often explore ideas like digital rights management (DRM), file sharing, and how technology changes society.
Contents
Life and Career of Cory Doctorow
Cory Efram Doctorow was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on 17 July 1971. His family came to Canada from different parts of Europe. As a young teenager, he went to a summer camp that helped shape his ideas. He later finished high school and attended four universities.
In 1999, Doctorow helped start a company called Opencola. It focused on P2P software. The company was later sold in 2003.
After that, Doctorow moved to London, England. He worked for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) for four years. The EFF is an organization that protects digital rights. He helped start the Open Rights Group there. In 2006, he left the EFF to focus on writing full-time. He also taught at the University of Southern California for a year.
In 2008, Cory Doctorow married Alice Taylor. They have one daughter. In 2011, he became a British citizen. In 2015, he moved to Los Angeles, USA. He also rejoined the EFF to work against DRM. DRM is technology that controls how you use digital content.
In 2020, Doctorow left Boing Boing and started his own blog called Pluralistic.
Other Work and Activism
Cory Doctorow has been involved in many projects. He supports the Tor anonymity network. This network helps people browse the internet privately. He has used Tor for over ten years during his travels.
He also gives talks at conferences. For example, he was a main speaker at the Hackers on Planet Earth conference in 2016 and 2024.
Cory Doctorow's Fiction Books
Cory Doctorow started writing and selling stories when he was 17. His first novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, came out in 2003. This book was special because it was one of the first novels released with a Creative Commons license. This allowed people to share the digital version for free.
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom was nominated for the Nebula Award. It also won the Locus Award for Best First Novel in 2004.
Many of Doctorow's other novels are also available for free online. They are released with Creative Commons licenses. This means you can download and share them.
His short story collection, A Place So Foreign and Eight More, won the Sunburst Award in 2004.
One of his most famous books is Little Brother, published in 2008. This book was a bestseller. It won several awards, including the John W. Campbell Memorial Award and the Prometheus Award. It's a young adult novel about a teenager fighting for freedom in a surveillance society.
He also wrote a sequel called Homeland in 2013, which also won the Prometheus Award.
Other novels include:
- Makers (2009)
- For the Win (2010), another young adult novel about online games.
- The Rapture of the Nerds (2012), co-written with Charles Stross.
- Pirate Cinema (2012), which won the Prometheus Award.
- Walkaway (2017)
- Radicalized (2019), a collection of four science fiction stories.
- Attack Surface (2020), a standalone novel in the "Little Brother" world.
- Red Team Blues (2023), a thriller about cybersecurity.
- The Lost Cause (2023), set in 2050s California.
- The Bezzle (2024), a second novel featuring the character Martin Hench.
Nonfiction and Other Writings
Cory Doctorow has written many nonfiction works. His first book was The Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Science Fiction (2000). He also writes regularly for magazines like Popular Science and Make. He is a contributing writer for Wired magazine.
In 2001, he wrote an important essay called "Metacrap." This essay talked about problems with how information is organized online. Some of his nonfiction essays were collected in a book called Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity, Copyright, and the Future of the Future.
He is also known for "Doctorow's Law." This idea states: "Anytime someone puts a lock on something you own, against your wishes, and doesn't give you the key, they're not doing it for your benefit." This means that if you can't fully control something you own, it's usually not for your good.
Cory Doctorow's Opinions
Intellectual Property
Doctorow believes that copyright laws should be more flexible. He thinks people should be able to share digital media freely. He argues that copyright holders should control the selling of their digital works. However, he thinks sharing for free should be allowed.
He is strongly against digital rights management (DRM). He believes DRM limits how people can use their own digital purchases. It can also cause problems for users.
Enshittification
Doctorow created the word "enshittification" to describe how online platforms can get worse over time. He explains it like this:
- First, platforms are good for their users.
- Then, they start to treat users badly to make more money from businesses.
- Finally, they treat those businesses badly to keep all the money for themselves.
- After that, the platform often declines.
This word became very popular in 2023. It was even chosen as the "Word of the Year" by the American Dialect Society. The Australian Macquarie Dictionary also picked it as their word of the year in 2024. They defined it as "The gradual deterioration of a service or product... as a consequence of profit-seeking."
Awards
- 2000 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer
- 2004 Locus Award for Best First Novel for Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
- 2004 Sunburst Award for A Place So Foreign and Eight More
- 2006 Locus Award for Best Novelette for "I, Robot"
- 2007 Locus Award for Best Novelette for "When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth"
- 2007 The Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award
For Little Brother
- 2009 John W. Campbell Memorial Award
- 2009 Prometheus Award
- 2009 Sunburst Award
- 2009 White Pine Award
- 2018 Inkpot Award
- For Pirate Cinema
- 2013 Prometheus Award
For Homeland
- 2014 Prometheus Award
See also
In Spanish: Cory Doctorow para niños
