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Matt Mason has finally been cleared by his publishers to make The Pirate’s Dilemma available as a pay-what-you-wish download. The PDF e-book is available here.
I’ve already snagged my copy; I’ve been meaning to read this book for a while now, but my to-read stack of physical books has been pleading with me to not add to its bulk. However, a PDF which I can read on my laptop? Full of win.
I can’t wait to get started. From what I’ve been able to read so far, via various excerpts online, the book should be chock-full of good, forward-thinking insight. I’m sure a close reading will engender one or two posts here, so this won’t be the last time I mention it.

I used to be a big, big fan of Metallica when I was in high school. I still enjoy their music on occasion. But then two things happened, and they happened more or less at the same time: they started to suck —anything after the Black Album is trash, and the Black Album itself is already a departure from classic Metallica, really— and Lars Ulrich produced his now-infamous list of file sharers who were ‘ripping him off’ by illegally downloading Metallica tracks on the original Napster.

The fact that four middle-aged, rock millionaires going through mid-life crises were essentially shaking down Shawn Fanning and co., crying about their ‘lost profits’ like some stupid corporate lapdogs was just too much. Ulrich’s ridiculous stance on file-sharing was even more absurd, considering that anyone even vaguely familiar with the band’s early days knows that Metallica first made their name by word of mouth. Back in the ’80s, when they were poor and metal, they actually encouraged people to make and distribute bootleg tapes of their material. Now that they were rich and washed-out, well, I guess they must look after their profits, no? Cliff Burton must be rolling over in his grave, dammit.

So, done and done. I destroyed my Metallica CDs, downloaded their discography illegally, and forgot about the whole thing.

Cut to a few months ago. Wired posts an article about how ‘Metallica Repents, Sort Of’. It turns out that the Metalli-windbags, after having had less-than-stellar studio outings since the ’90s, and after seeing the likes of Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails pursue successful online distribution strategies, have decided to follow suit, and release their new studio album online. Sort of. They set up a website called ‘Mission Metallica’ (no link love for these jerks), where they have been posting ancilliary material such as in-studio and live performance videos, photos, etc. However, what they won’t be doing is posting their album. On top of that, you have to sign up on the site to be part of their so-called community. Meh.

Upon reading this, I was slightly intrigued, but upon reflection, and upon remembering that Metallica has sucked musically for the last decade or so, I said to myself “Too little, too late,” and moved on.

Now this. It seems that Metallica has had early reviews of their new album pulled from internet sites, even though the reviews stem from a listening party that they themselves set up in London, at which no one was asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement. The kicker? The reviews were apparently (and surprisingly, at least to me) good, and heralded the album as a ‘return to form’.

Idiots. Call me when the abum drops, so that I can go download it illegally and then immediately delete it from my drive, unplayed.

. . . . that the Pirate Bay was raided, in a headline-grabbing move carried out by Swedish police, but orchestrated by the MAFIAA. Since then, the ‘Bay has only grown stronger, and the file sharing movement has grown with it. Like a Hydra, baby. Like a Hydra.

Ars Technica has a nice write-up here.

Cory Doctorow has released his fantastic new YA novel, Little Brother as a free, Creative Commons-licensed download. Go, go get it now. Read it, enjoy it, and share it, especially with the younger ones. I can’t stress this enough. This book is generating a whole lot of buzz, and for all the right reasons.

Zak Snyder has announced a contest for people to submit fake ads and other, Veidt Enterprises-related promotional material, here. The winning entries will be used as in-story content in the upcoming Watchmen movie. I’m split three ways about this:

The fanboy in me is incredibly excited to see this film. Snyder outdid himself on 300. Watchmen, from what I’ve seen so far, looks to be of the same caliber and fidelity to the original comic. 

The web-denizen in me is very interested to see a motion picture from a major studio integrate crowdsourcing into its production. 

However, the creative professional in me balks at the idea that this is, in effect, a muti-national conglomerate (and member of the MPAA, no less) soliciting spec work from the masses, to be used in a profit-generating film. I have absolutely no doubt that some of the entries will be of professional caliber, and the thought of some hapless fanboy giving away his hard work for mere geek-cred just rubs me the wrong way. While, upon reading the fine print, one does find that there are cash prizes to be won,the legalese seems a bit sketchy to me. I’m inclined to speculate, but I am not a lawyer, and I have trouble parsing legalese, so I’ll keep my mouth shut. Anyone else have any thoughts?

The folks over at Instructables have started an rss feed with instructables based on the contents of Cory Doctorow’s forthcoming new book, Little Brother. According to Cory, on his Craphound blog:

….[the instructables crew] were really inspired by all the ingenuity demonstrated by the book’s heroes, so they’ve made a series of HOWTOs in the voice of M1k3y, the techno-guerrilla who tells the story in Little Brother.

Little Brother goes on sale in something like ten days. It has been generating a lot of buzz, particularly at Comic Con this past weekend. It is one of those wonderfully subversive books that inspires, educates, and informs, all while geared towards a YA audience. I read an advance copy a few months ago, enjoyed the hell out of it, and recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone who even halfway asks, especially to kids. 

I’ll be following this feed closely. The first entry is, appropriately enough for me, the photo-emulsion screen printing process! Print geeks, unite!

Because there are few things that piss me off more than frivolrous copyright-baiting by large corporations. Go Engadget, go.Image courtesy of Ryan Block, via Veronica Belmont. 

Lawrence Lessig –founder of the Creative Commons, board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, all around kickass dude, and one of my heroes–has just climbed like fifteen hundred notches on my scale of awesome by turning his attentions from fighting for copyright reform, to fighting for government reform. From Wired.com:

“The problem we face is … the problem of crony capitalism using money to capture government,” he said on Monday during the launch of his project in Washington, DC. “The challenge is whether in fact we can change this. The political experts tell you that it can’t be done, that process always win over substance.”  

As such, he and Joe Trippi have founded The Change Congress Project, which aims to bring an unprecedented degree of transparency to politics. A short piece by Lessig himself, outlining his intentions with this project, can be found here. This is a perfect example of how technology, properly wielded in the hands of many, can and will bring transparency and accountability to the opaque back-room-deal-type of politics that we’re unfortunately used to, and which so many of us abhor. I think one of the biggest trends of the coming decade or so is going to be the disruptive effect of technology and communications on politics in the US and worldwide, an analogous situation to how technology has disrupted the entertainment industry over the past ten years or so. We’re going to start seeing a lot more politicians being on the up-and-up, because they won’t have a choice, they will be under too much scrutiny. 

First chapters of ALL Penguin’s latest novels now available to download for free as DRM-free PDF’s here. Well played, Penguin. Well played. Via The Penguin Blog.