Pirate Cinema [Hardcover]

Cory Doctorow (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 2, 2012

Trent McCauley is sixteen, brilliant, and obsessed with one thing: making movies on his computer by reassembling footage from popular films he downloads from the net. In the dystopian near-future Britain where Trent is growing up, this is more illegal than ever; the punishment for being caught three times is that your entire household’s access to the internet is cut off for a year, with no appeal.

Trent's too clever for that too happen. Except it does, and it nearly destroys his family. Shamed and shattered, Trent runs away to London, where he slowly he learns the ways of staying alive on the streets. This brings him in touch with a demimonde of artists and activists who are trying to fight a new bill that will criminalize even more harmless internet creativity, making felons of millions of British citizens at a stroke. 

Things look bad. Parliament is in power of a few wealthy media conglomerates. But the powers-that-be haven’t entirely reckoned with the power of a gripping movie to change people’s minds….

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up-Trent McCauley, 16, makes films. The problem is that his films are composed of bits and pieces of other copyrighted material. He's a thief of intellectual property and in this near-future Great Britain, the consequences for this sort of action are severe. He leaves home for London after his online piracy has caused his entire family to lose their vital Internet connection for a year. He soon meets Jem, who shows him the ropes of being homeless, and in no time they are sharing a posh flop with Trent's new mates. Back online, he makes films that are a smash hit on the underground scene where he rechristens himself "Cecil B. DeVil." He falls in love with beautiful and brilliant 26, who opens his eyes to the political ramifications of his filmmaking. Soon Cecil and his entire crew are in a political and artistic fight to dismantle legislation criminalizing their type of creativity, legislation written by film studios and passed by the studios' Parliament lackeys. This amazing book combines young love, terrific humor, great British slang, and crazy parties with astute commentary on intellectual property and emerging modes of creativity. Doctorow's characters are well-defined individuals, all with some facet, quirk, or activity to give them color. Language-arts and civics teachers could co-teach the heck out of this novel, and debaters will find a goldmine of monologues. It's funny, thought-provoking, and glorious.-Eric Norton, McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids, WIα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Review

“Doctorow is indispensible. It's hard to imagine any other author taking on youth and technology with such passion, intelligence, and understanding.”—Booklist, starred review on For The Win

Praise for Little Brother:

“Generally awesome in the more vernacular sense: It's pretty freaking cool... He's also terrific at finding the human aura shimmering around technology."  —The Los Angeles Times

“A believable and frightening tale of a near-future San Francisco… Filled with sharp dialogue and detailed descriptions…within a tautly crafted fictional framework.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Doctorow pays homage to [1984] with an impassioned, polemical consideration of the War on Terror that dovetails with themes of teenage angst, rebellion, and paranoia ... Little Brother should easily find favor with fans of M. T. Anderson's Feed, Janet Tashjian's The Gospel According to Larry, and Scott Westerfeld's So Yesterday.” —Horn Book(starred review)

“Readers will delight in the details of how Marcus attempts to stage a techno-revolution… Buy multiple copies; this book will be h4wt (that’s ‘hot,’ for the nonhackers).”  —Booklist (starred review)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Tor Teen; First Edition edition (October 2, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9780765329080
• ISBN-13: 978-0765329080
• ASIN: 0765329085
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #608,674 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Canadian-born Cory Doctorow has held policy positions with Creative Commons and the Electronic Frontier Foundation and been a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Southern California. He is a co-editor of the popular weblog BoingBoing (boingboing.net), which receives over three million visitors a month. His science fiction has won numerous awards, and his YA novel LITTLE BROTHER spent seven weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars A bit leaden October 9, 2012

By By the Bayou

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I'm a big fan of Doctorow and really like how he's done YA work - such as Little Brother - that doesn't talk down to its audience (& as a result makes good reading for not not-Y A's out there). But this is just a bit leaden, with characters too often suddenly regurgitating the author's essay work on topics like Trusted Computing and copyright law. Suddenly the novel seems to have turned into a public service announcement for a while.

So this is a bit disappointing, largely because of the high expectations set by Doctorow's much more deftly-executed work around some of these same themes.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but not the finest of Doctorow's works February 12, 2013

By Umberto Nicoletti

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought PC after reading Big Brother from the same author. While with BB I was hooked from the beginning until the end PC fails to engage the reader and it all has a sense of deja-vu. If you have not yet read BB (read it!) your feeling might be different.

If on a narrative-level the book somehow fails to deliver a great reding experience on the other hand if you, like me, are sensitive to the issues of copyright and IP you will resonate to the protagonists' adventures.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Fine for many young readers, but NOT sophisticated November 5, 2012

By A. Gold

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Let me start by saying that I know this book has been categorized by the publisher as "Young Adult Fiction," and so it may be somewhat unfair to criticize its lack of sophistication. However, even young readers do not want to be hit over the head with a message and I think that this book does just that. I generally love Cory Doctorow's books -- even some of his recent forays into the "Young Adult" genre. Unfortunately, the characters in this book stretch credulity as it is obvious - at least to me - that the words put into their mouths came from the mind of an adult passionate about the subject matter and not an actual teen. I share Doctorow's concerns that the line between corporations and government is becoming progressively harder to distinguish every day, and that the centralization of media control in the hands of corporate interests contributes greatly to the apathy of most of the citizenry of the "free world" while that very apathy allows this control to exist and grow. I also agree with his belief that if "the people" are to take back our government, such a movement will most likely begin among young, tech-savvy people. The problem, however, is not the message but the medium. The characters in this novel are, for the most part, very one-dimensional and the plot is as predictable as it is plodding. There is just no subtlety. Perhaps this is what most younger readers want, but I expect that the true deep-thinkers among them will feel cheated and talked-down to. Cory Doctorow is a thought-leader in this area and has a lot to teach the most intelligent of his readers. Unfortunately, in what I believe was an effort to reach a broader audience the author sacrificed an opportunity to reach those among his target audience who are most likely to lead any charge towards real change.

10 of 14 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Fun YA fantasy, or a political screed? November 2, 2012

By Pat

Format:Hardcover

Warning, there are some slight spoilers in this review.

When viewed as a bit of young-adult techno-adventure Pirate Cinema is a fun and engaging read. It is great fantasy that might inspire some youngsters to get off their consumer butts and actually create something.

But that really isn't the whole story. Pirate Cinema is at its heart a thinly veiled extended "copyfight" screed. Doctorow is well-known for his quixotic quest against intellectual property laws, and the whole book is really an elaborate straw man (I suppose anglophile Doctorow would prefer "aunt sally") proxy for his arguments that there are no original works of art or literature, it is all derivative of past works and culture, and all copyright laws are merely supporting the interests of the entrenched entertainment and publishing industry and suppressing free speech and boundless new works that would enrich all our lives if we could simply strike down the copyright laws. As you can tell I am not really comfortable with my reading of Doctorow's position or the book's premise that allowing free-wheeling downloading of all media would be a good thing. I fully agree that internet access should be considered a basic human right, and that the surveillance proposed by various defenders of intellectual property rights are abhorrent, but I also don't think Doctorow has all of the answers. What about the theft of digital copies of blockbuster films? I do think Michael Bay has a right to be paid by those who enjoy his films. I do think the software authors should be able to receive compensation for their work.... Personally I'm OK with the remixing and sampling, but I'm just not sure how to reconcile allowing that level of fair use with the publisher's right to make every consumer of their product pay, something I also support. Maybe copyright just needs to expire sooner. I don't have the answers, and I'm also pretty firmly convicted that neither does Doctorow. Bully for him for trying. Readers should think for themselves and not swallow his line of reasoning whole.

A big part of my discomfort with Pirate Cinema is that it is all a little too pat. Squatters are all just agents of urban renewal. The artists who made the films love the pirate cinema team. It is just the big bad lawyers and evil corporations who are the enemy. Draconian copyright protection will cause your parents to lose their jobs and their health. Getting sued is not a problem if you have no assets. You can eat like a king on day old bread and other delicacies that have to be discarded by corporations due to fear of litigation. There's a dude with a warehouse of discarded but perfectly functional tech who can supply you with any electronics you need. It is a fairy tale. A fantasy. It makes for a fun read, but all of these elements combine to make the reader know in their heart that none of it can be true...a conclusion that ultimately only undermines Doctorow's copyfight arguments. It would have been nice to have some character in there who was struggling to earn their livelihood from their creative efforts only to be frustrated by seeing their potential paying customers get the product for free.

Overall I liked the book. It challenged my preconceived notions and made me think. It helped me clarify my own positions on these topics. So that is all a good thing. And it was a fun read from an YA techno/action/adventure perspective. Just know you are going to be force-fed one person's opinions about a real-world problem that are being illustrated with an extremely unlikely set of characters and circumstances that fails to do full justice to this complex issue. It is at its heart a work of propaganda.

There was one other thing stylistically that really annoyed me which was the over-the-top use of British slang. Gubbins. Brilliant. Snog. Jiggery-pokery. Skip. Grass. OK we get it, you love London and everything about it. Don't take such a heavy hand with it. You are getting dangerously close to Robert J. Sawyer territory, a fellow Canadian author who is as much of a proselytizer for Canada as you seem to be becoming for London. I stopped reading Sawyer because it seemed like every other chapter he was about to break out with a verse of "Oh, Canada!" Read more ›

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars "Pirate Cinema" January 30, 2013

By Alexandro C. Telander

Format:Hardcover

After the success of Little Brother and For the Win, bestselling author Cory Doctorow returns with another young adult novel about an oppressed youth who is looking to change the world for the better in an uncertain near future. This time Doctorow jumps across the pond to Britain, where he spends a good portion of his time, and writes about the subject of internet piracy.

In a near future, Trent McCauley is a smart sixteen year-old who does his school work but spends most of his time downloading videos of a fictitious celebrity and creating vids about him using clips from all the movies the person has been in, telling a specific story, usually played to music. He has a lot of fun doing it and there's definitely an artwork and talent to it. Then the internet is cut off in the household under the recent law for internet piracy, and the family is now severed from the internet at home for a whole year; which is really important. Trent's sister needs it to do all her school work, she simply won't pass her classes without it; his mother needs it to get support for her medical condition; and his father needs it because he's unemployed, and needs to claim his unemployment checks, as well as look for jobs. It puts the family in a dire situation, with Trent feeling really guilty about the whole thing.

So he does what any teenager would logically do: he runs away from home. He arrives in London with high hopes of living on the street, which are soon dashed when his belongings are stolen and he finds himself hungry and terribly alone, and wondering if he's made a terrible mistake.... But he soon makes some new friends who show him the ropes and how to get by pretty easily in London, eventually leading them to squat in an abandoned pub, where they get the power back on, the internet going, and life begins to go pretty well.

Their goal is to have lots of movie viewing parties via a secret internet website that gets people together, to support the vid-making industry and create awareness about what they're doing and why it isn't wrong and shouldn't be illegal. They're also looking to fight back against the passing of a recent law in Parliament that is now imprisoning teenagers and children for internet piracy. Their numbers begin to grow, and gain support; the question is how they are going to make this change happen, without coming off as a radical group of homeless people.

Pirate Cinema feels a lot like the British version of Little Brother, as Doctorow has done his work with how the government works and how the internet is used and perceived in Britain. He even goes so far as to use a British vernacular, with plenty of slang thrown in. The weakness of the book is in the conflicts and issues the main character has to deal with. Trent definitely gets himself into some direct situations and problems, but they're never really that hard or tough, and he always gets out of it real easy. It still makes for an enjoyable story that is lacking in potential dramatic tension. Readers -- especially teens -- will nevertheless enjoy the book for what it's trying to do.

Originally written on December 5, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.

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