Pirate Cinema - Book Review

Pirate Cinema, by Cory Doctorow, is a politically heavy novel that takes place in the near future.

(Mild spoilers below!)

In this future, (or current present - I'm not really keeping track) downloading illegal materials in the UK can get you cut off the net. As people increasingly depend on net access, this can be very bad.

And that is what happens to the main character, who loves making new movies out of existing footage. Getting cut off from the net really messes with his family, and he ends up running away from a tiny city to London.

In London, he ends up as a homeless person, but makes new friends, meets a girl, and continues to make awesome mashups of older movies. Eventually they fight the new law that criminalize piracy (in pretty creative aways).

Overall, it was a very enjoyable read, and I imagine it would help set opinions against criminalizing piracy and allowing reuse of existing material - if almost everyone that reads it didn't already agree.

Also, it is only natural to praise Doctorow - most of his books bring attention to some aspect of current social injustice AND they are usually free downloads! So I preferred to buy this one from Amazon.

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