Cory Doctorow

Cory is European Affairs Coordinator for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (eff.org), a co-editor at Boing Boing (boingboing.net), and an award-winning science fiction writer (craphound.com/est). He lives in London, England.

Author of these Magazine Articles

The Half-Life of Stuff
When code doesn’t work, we erase it. When stuff doesn’t work, most of it goes to landfill.
In Make Free from MAKE: 29: DIY Superhuman page 31

What My Wife Taught Me About Toys Today
Can 3D printing bring toy making back home?
In Make Free from MAKE: 28: Toys and Games page 33

Four Horsemen of the 3D Printing Apocalypse
Pro-regulation hysterics make recourse to the Four Horsemen of the Infocalypse: child porn, organized crime, terrorist, and pirates.
In Make Free from MAKE: 27: Robots page 31

Moral Suasion
A wake-up call for anyone who's blithely relying on the cloud.
In Make Free from MAKE: 26: Karts and Wheels page 31

Untouched by Human Hands
Is there a boardroom somewhere trying to figure out how to make your next Happy Meal toy, laptop, or Ikea table look like it was handmade by a MAKE reader?
In Make Free from MAKE: 25: Microcontrollers and Arduino page 16

Memento Mori
The standard explanation for the attractiveness of older technology is simply that They Made It Better In The Old Days. But this isn't necessarily or even usually true.
In Make Free from MAKE: 24: Space page 16

Walled Gardens vs. Makers
Making is about sharing. The reason we can make so much today is because the basic knowledge, skills, and tools to make anything are already on the ground, a loam in which our inspiration can germinate.
In Make Free from MAKE: 23: Gadgets page 16

Are You the Scanner or the Barcode?
Would you rather be emitter or sensor?
In Make Free from MAKE: 22: Remote Control / Wireless page 10

Who You Calling Unoriginal?
Reinventing the wheel is not mandatory.
In Make Free from MAKE: 21: Desktop Manufacturing page 14

Shortcut to Omniscience
Wikipedia's secret weapon and its greatest weakness.
In Make Free from MAKE: 20: For Kids of All Ages page 14

Positive Externalities
Fight against the greed of a small band of vocal dinosaurs.
In Make Free from MAKE: 19: Robots page 17

Open Government
There's never a good reason for the government to keep its everyday workings a secret from the people who own it: the citizenry.
In Make Free from MAKE: 18: ReMake America page 17

Love the Machine, Hate the Factory
The biggest appeal of steampunk is that it exalts the machine and disparages the mechanization of human creativity.
In Make Free from MAKE: 17: Lost Knowledge page 14

Selectable Output Control
Hollywood's most insane idea yet.
In Make Free from MAKE: 16: Spy Tech page 14

Gander Sauce for Hollywood
Cory Doctorow advocates the entertainment industry take a little bit of their own sauce.
In Make Free from MAKE: 15: Music page 14

Too Much Time on My Hands
All creative endeavor begins with just fooling around. Enjoy it.
In Make Free from MAKE: 14: Optics page 14

Predicting the Present
Science fiction writers may not accurately predict the future, but they're often excellent predictors of the present.
In Make Free from MAKE: 13: Magic page 14

Make Free
The great, perverse joy of steampunk.
In Make Free from MAKE: 12: Upload page 24

Attack, Defend
Nearly ten years after the invention of Napster, there's more file sharing than ever.
In Make Free from MAKE: 11: Alt Vehicles page 15

Agree to Disagree
Bogus agreements are everywhere. Void them.
In Make Free from MAKE: 10: Home Electronics page 15

I Agree
In order to "protect intellectual property," these bandits are perfectly willing to take away your rights to your physical, personal property.
In Make Free from MAKE: 09: Fringe page 15

High-Definition = Highly Deadly
Forget plugging in a PC or Slingbox. Goodbye open platforms, hello monopoly lockware.
In Make Free from MAKE: 08: Toys and Games page 16

A for Anything
Creative destruction opens more doors than it closes.
In Make Free from MAKE: 07: Backyard Biology page 16

A House Divided
Hollywood feels the sting of its own copyright laws.
In Make Free from MAKE: 06: Robots page 26

Cogs and Cocktails
Meet the drink-serving, drunk-driving droids at Roboexotica.
From MAKE: 06: Robots page 65

Traitors to History
A copyright-controlled museum is a crime against humanity.
In Make Free from MAKE: 05: Science, Weather, and Outdoors page 16

RIP: Rip, Mix, Burn

In Make Free from MAKE: 04: Music and Kits for the Holidays page 183

Real Security Vs. Junk Science
Why copy-restriction technology succeeds only in hurting the user.
In Make Free from MAKE: 03: Cars and Halloween page 10

The Last Generation of Engineers
Why digital rights management kills innovation.
In Make Free from MAKE: 02: Home Entertainment page 187

Hacking the Dog
Who says you have to spend thousands of dollars to get a cool robot? The world's toy stores brim with cheap-ass, rough and ready robotic platforms just begging to be modded. Meet a hacker who converts toy robots into toxic waste dump avengers.
In Make Free from MAKE: 01: Make Premiere page 22