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Doctorow and Stross Release Latest Novels for Free

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the internet-books dept.

FleaPlus writes "Two prominent science fiction authors have recently released their newest novels as free downloads to coincide with their in-store releases. The first is Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town, by Cory Doctorow. This is an unconventional story about an entrepreneur (who happens to be the child of a mountain and a washing machine) who gets involved in a scheme to blanket Toronto with free wireless mesh network, among other things. The second is Accelerando, by Charles Stross, which tells the tale of three generations of the Macx family (beginning with perptually-slashdotted venture altruist Manfred Macx) in the years leading up to and beyond a technological singularity."

8 of 236 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Good luck, suckers by kotku · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Personally I like sitting in a deck chair in the sun with a nice paper book. My puter is for work or baiting slashdot copyright whingers .....

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    The bikini - security through obscurity since 1943
  2. Re:DRM by kotku · · Score: 3, Insightful

    DRM doesn't work. Every file ever released with DRM locks on it is currently available for free download on the Internet. You don't need any special skills to break DRM these days: you just have to know how to search Google for the name of the work you're seeking.

    DRM does work. It doesn't have to work all the time. As long as it is still easier to purchased DRM'd stuff than search for cracked stuff on the internet there will still be sales of it and people will make money. People here kid themselves that if everything was available for free with no DRM at all content providers would still make some money. It's a war and nobody will ever trully win it. Content providers will come up with ingenious ways to protect thier new works which *will* work for a short while and then somebody will crack it. Content providers move to new tech. It doesn't have to work forever. Just enough time to cash in.

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    The bikini - security through obscurity since 1943
  3. Don't want to sound cynical but by kotku · · Score: 3, Insightful


    Being anti DRM is the flavor of the month with a certain demographic. This little rant above and the release of a non DRM'd book is great marketing. Look he got himself posted on slashdot!!!!

    It is a bit like Metallica in reverse. Hard angry men encouraging other young angry men to break societies rules but wait .... somebody is downloading our music for free, lets run to the establishment.

    Just as Metallica is hard and angry for *marketing* purposes when it suits them I can't quite believe this guy is anti DRM for any reasons other than it is good marketing for the moment.

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    The bikini - security through obscurity since 1943
    1. Re:Don't want to sound cynical but by charlie · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Considering that Cory is employed as the tech evangelist for The EFF in Europe, and is currently leading their campaign to block the broadcast flag for DRM in hi-def TV, you might want to re-think your idea that he's anti-DRM purely for pose value.

  4. Re:DRM by mwvdlee · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think what is meant is that DRM doesn't stop people who want to get the media illegally AT ALL, it only inconveniences their customers.

    You say a protection scheme works for a short while. With the latest protection schemes, they were hacked within a few days; most people wouldn't even have had the time to buy the player yet.

    So for the benefit of just a few days of additional income, DRM inconveniences all paying customers for the rest of the DRM's existence.

    DRM doesn't work since nobody who matters benefits, not the companies nor the paying customers.

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  5. Re:DRM by kotku · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I think what is meant is that DRM doesn't stop people who want to get the media illegally AT ALL

    Maybe it doesn't stop a core of people who know how to apply the patches, upgrade thier firmware or browse warez sites but there are plenty of people who wouldn't have a clue. These are the people the content providers have to muddle to keep them in the shops and they are the majority. It doesn't have to be impossible just inconvienient.

    --
    The bikini - security through obscurity since 1943
  6. Let it be said by braindead · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't see it in the comments yet, so I'll say it myself: thank you Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross!

  7. Re:DRM by WNight · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I agree with the earlier poster who said that a DRM success wouldn't be any good for the consumers. We are living in a period of DRM success - just look at anyone who owns DVDs and doesn't use DVD Shrink.

    They are forced to watch trailers on many disks (Sixth Sense for one), can't screenshot or record a quick excerpt, and often can't play it to secondary video devices.

    This world of DRM Success shows that nobody in charge cares about the customer. Stores refuse to take back broken movies like Sixth Sense, or even ones that for a software glitch refuse to work in computer players (I have a few that won't play in PowerDVD or Xine). And then there's the fact that using non-authorized software is illegal. I'm not allowed to try to fix this.

    DRM is never going to not suck - there will always be reasons for wanting to prevent things that people are free to do with unprotected media like books (annotating, removing unwanted pages, skipping dull crap). Studios don't want you to do anything to their media, or watch it any way other than they intend. Allowances for consumer choice would be a hole their ideal total DRM, as such, they'll fight against you ever getting choice.