The World In Between

“Artists and Anarchists” is a short story for which I’ve had the idea for sometime. This is, in fact, the first story I’ve written in a long time. It’s a rather sarcastic perspective on what the near-future might be like if some of the legal and litigious insanity of current (misnomer-ed) intellectual property laws and “content” companies’ policies were taken to an absurd extreme. The characters are not based on any real people and any resemblance to actual persons or their names is coincidental.

I’m releasing the story under a Creative Commons license. What this means is that it’s free to distribute for non-commercial purposes. It’s also free (as in speech) to create derivative works (like your own version of the Bible). So if you think the story isn’t as good as it could be, you can remix it and make it better. I’ll also be recording a podcast of the story in the near future for everyone who would rather listen to the story than read it.

So without further ado: Artists and Anarchists

If you’re curious about my inspirations for the story, here’s a short list of some of the recognizable influences:

The Modern Humorist’s Propaganda in the Internet Age “downloading Communism” poster. Original found here.

The RIAA home invasions video found on YouTube. Warning: It’s a little graphic.

Several stories and lectures, as well as a bit of the writing style, of Cory Doctorow also served as influence. I recommend checking out his website, Craphound.com, which has a lot a stories and podcasts available for free under a Creative Commons license.

Filed under:
Creative Commons, free as in beer, free as in speech, reading, short story