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Cory Doctorow
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Why None Of My Books Are Available On Audible: And why Amazon owes me $3,218.55 Kindle Edition

by Cory Doctorow (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 42 ratings
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The Kindle edition of a short audiobook I produced to be distributed through Amazon's ACX platform, explaining how that platform's sloppy rights verification and mandatory DRM screws over writers.
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  1. Reading age
    12 - 18 years
  2. Print length
    18 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publication date
    July 3, 2022
  5. Page Flip
    Enabled
  6. Word Wise
    Not Enabled
  7. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0B5RWTPR7
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 3, 2022
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 173 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 18 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 42 ratings

About the author

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Cory Doctorow

Cory Doctorow

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Cory Doctorow (craphound.com) is a science fiction author, activist and journalist. He is the author of many books, most recently RADICALIZED and WALKAWAY, science fiction for adults; CHOKEPOINT CAPITALISM, nonfiction about monopoly and creative labor markets; IN REAL LIFE, a graphic novel; and the picture book POESY THE MONSTER SLAYER. His latest novel is ATTACK SURFACE, a standalone adult sequel to LITTLE BROTHER. In 2020, he was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.

Customer reviews

5 out of 5 stars
42 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Dave the Obscure
5.0 out of 5 stars Wakeup Call
Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2022
Verified Purchase
This short little work details the struggles of the author to control his own work in the face of a corporation worth billions of dollars. Doctorow wanted to publish his books without the ridiculous DRM that forces customers like me, who use Linux, to use a clunky web browser based interface to listen to what I've paid for but can never truly own. Like the author, I love audio-books and because of the pandemic have been a constant customer of Audible. I see his point.

I've bought enough audio-books to last me for quite awhile. This will give me time to look into alternatives to Audible for my future needs. So I'll be cancelling my Audible account today. Why? Because I love reading Cory Doctorow and would love to be able to buy his works from Audible. But only on his terms. So I'll be buying them from him. I don't expect that Amazon will allow this review to be shown on their website. No matter. I think people will come to this conclusion eventually on their own.
37 people found this helpful
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Ian Baker
5.0 out of 5 stars Class A Snark
Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2022
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This short essay is hilarious, biting, and absolutely worth $1. It also lays out a coherent case for why DRM is a fundamentally harmful technology. But you can read about that lots of places. Read about it here because it’s fun!
4 people found this helpful
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Big Al
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazon is evil and monopolistic
Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2022
Verified Purchase
This is a great example of why we need to keep our eyes open and I personally will never buy ANY audible book!
3 people found this helpful
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book nerd
5.0 out of 5 stars Totally worth the price!
Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2022
Verified Purchase
Of course this was going to be good. I hadn't expected to learn anything new, though. But I was pleasantly surprised.
2 people found this helpful
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Mark J. Reed
5.0 out of 5 stars well worth the read
Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2024
A simple, concise, and damning indictment of the way Audible (and Amazon more broadly, not to mention US copyright law more broadly yet) maintain monopolies on entire categories of media.
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Mika A. Cooper
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent indictment of DRM, Audible, & Amazon
Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2022
Doctorow explains how Digital Rights Management (DRM), while great for large companies that provide content, is terrible for both the creators of that content & the consumers. He dives specifically into the case of Audible, which is owned by Amazon, & which retains digital control of the audiobooks it sells, even against the wishes of the audiobooks' creators. He describes how Amazon's ACX audiobook-creation platform can easily be gamed to steal money not just from authors but also from narrators tricked by unscrupulous operators into making recordings for which they don't get paid. As an example, Doctorow offers the case of his own novel Walkaway, a illegal audiobook recording of which was commissioned by someone & marketed via ACX for some time before the illegality was discovered, leaving the duped narrator unpaid for dozens of hours of recording work & stealing $3,218.55 in sales from Doctorow. This short monograph is a great, eyeopening read; it certainly explains why Doctorow retains the audio rights to all his work & markets his own finely crafted audiobooks via his own site, rather than through Audible & Amazon. I wish more authors did the same.
11 people found this helpful
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Joshua Bradley
5.0 out of 5 stars ✊
Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2022
Cory produces some of the best audiobooks I’ve ever heard, and DRM across media is an assault on what you’ve spent your money on. Do you think you own all those digital albums and films? If the platform loses their rights, your purchase goes out the window with it. It’s probably no big deal, because they’ll just get you for $10 a month to give you the privilege to participate in shirking artists and authors.
4 people found this helpful
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AA
5.0 out of 5 stars Concise analysis of the Audible business model
Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2022
The author is an expert on critical issues in the information age who writes engagingly and clearly.

The audiobook version is now available as well. That would seem like the ideal format.
Versions can also be found in the author's podcast and on his blog, and (as text) on his blog, Pluralistic.

As I write this, the Kindle edition is classed as #1 in 30-Minute Teen & Young Adult Short Reads
6 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Cora Seip
5.0 out of 5 stars I didn't know
Reviewed in the Netherlands on July 27, 2022
Verified Purchase
Or didn't want to know (because of convenience). Will have to be looking into alternatives (and a way to keep what I've bought so far).
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