Yatterings

Cory Doctorow has declared today, July 11th, Fair Use Day. I’m sure that Cory (actually I’ve heard him speak on the subject so I know he would) would put this more eloquently but any restrictions of Fair Use are, frankly, immoral and counter-productive.

The reasoning behind this blog is taken from a short extract from his short story, Print Crimes. Originally published in Nature as one of their excellent series of short sf stories, its a great call to do what small part you can in stopping and subverting the idiots. It is told from the perspective of Lanie, who’s father has been taken to prison for use of his printer and these are the closing paragraphs:

“Come here, Lanie, let me whisper in your ear. Let me tell you the thing that I decided while I spent ten years in lockup. Come here and listen to your stupid Da.”

I felt a guilty pang about ticking him off. He was off his rocker, that much was clear. God knew what he went through in prison. “What, Da?” I said, leaning in close.

“Lanie, I’m going to print more printers. Lots more printers. One for everyone. That’s worth going to jail for. That’s worth anything.”

The short story is on the Nature website and was originally published in January 2006. Its collected in Cory’s recent collection, Overclocked: Stories of the Future Present. It was also podcast on Escape Pod.