Cory Doctorow reports several translations of his work and other public publications.
His novelette “0wnz0red,” which was a 2002 Nebula nominee, has been translated into Swedish by Johan Anglemark, and published in the Finnish fanzine Enhörningen. It’s also available under a Creative Commons license at this link. Doctorow writes “‘0wnz0red’ was the first sf story ever published on Salon and it has been reprinted several times—nice to see it reaching Nordic fans, too!” It seems that “0wnz0red” translates into Swedish as “Ägd!”
Doctorow also writes that “Georgi Ivanov has translated my Radar story ‘Scroogled’ into Bulgarian. ‘Scroogled’ (a story about the day Google became evil) was the first Creative Commons licensed story to appear in Radar Magazine, and it’s been translated by fans into French, Spanish, Russian, and Persian as well.” The Bulgarian version is available at this link. It appears iin Radar in English at this link.
Doctorow also has two columns addressing rights ownership available. His latest Guardian column discusses “Why a rights robocop will never work. In it, I address the issue of automated copyright enforcement systems and why they are a bad idea.” Part of his argument is that “It would have to perform with near-perfection: even if it turns out that it catches every single infringement except for video that is re-cut to 16:9 with letterboxing at 31fps, then all the pirates will just encode it that way and evade the filter, meaning that the system would generate an unacceptable level of false negatives.
“In other words, all the money spent on the system would be for naught because it would fail to catch a significant proportion of pirates.
“It would also have to be nearly perfect in regards to false positives—every time it misidentified a home movie of your kids’ first steps or your gran’s 85th birthday as Police Academy 29 or Star Wars: Episode 0, Jedi Teen Academy, your own right to use the Internet to communicate with your friends and family would be compromised—likewise unacceptable.” To read the full column, see this page.
And finally, in Information Week, he discusses “How Big Media’s Copyright Campaigns Threaten Internet Free Expression.” In the piece, he talks about why artists should worry more that rising costs of publication with copyright enforcement systems will force them into a subservient position regarding big, established media companies. He says “The Internet’s current, incredible diversity is great news for artists. The traditional artist’s lament is that our publishers have us over a barrel, controlling the narrow and vital channels for making works available—from big gallery owners to movie studios to record labels to New York publishers. That’s why artists have such a hard time negotiating a decent deal for themselves (for example, most beginning recording artists have to agree to have money deducted from their royalty statements for ‘breakage’ of records en route to stores—and these deductions are also levied against digital sales through the iTunes Store!).
“But, thanks to the web, artists have more options than ever. The Internet’s most popular video podcasts aren’t associated with TV networks (with all the terrible, one-sided deals that would entail), rather, they’re independent programs like RocketBoom, Homestar Runner, or the late, lamented Ze Frank Show. These creators—along with all the musicians, writers, and other artists using the net to earn their living—were able to write their own ticket. Today, major artists like Radiohead and Madonna are leaving the record labels behind and trying novel, net-based ways of promoting their work.
“And it’s not just the indies who benefit: the existence of successful independent artists creates fantastic leverage for artists who negotiate with the majors. More and more, the big media companies’ ‘like it or leave it’ bargaining stance is being undermined by the possibility that the next big star will shrug, turn on her heel, and make her fortune without the big companies’ help. This has humbled the bigs, making their deals better and more artist-friendly.” To read the full column, see this page.