Those of us old enough to remember BBS servers or even rainbow banners often go down the nostalgia hole about how the internet was better “back in the day” than it is now as a handful o…
Ms Taylor is now the Director, StudioLab at The Walt Disney Studios. In that role she is responsible for ensuring that Disney continues to invest in the intersection between online tech and content distribution.
EDIT: You all are reading way too far into me bringing this up. Didn’t say this to invalidate his point, mostly wanted to highlight something that I find most people don’t know about him. It’s something I think is important considering how much he styles himself as an idealogue/icon for technological freedom. He still makes good points, but the position he’s doing it from should be known is all.
I don’t have a stake in this argument, as this is my first time learning about Doctorow. I just want to add that a good phrase to express the situation you described is “potential conflict of interest.”
It’s no longer Makielab, as it was acquied by Disney. What they actually do now ias a subsidiary is unclear beyond the quote from her Wikipedia page, especially as her personal site linked to by Wikipedia is down.
I spent a good chunk of my teen years on 4chan, I’m normally the one pushing the idea that a good point is valid regardless of the source.
Anyway, I edited my comment and I’ll copy that here: Didn’t say this to invalidate his point, mostly wanted to highlight something that I find most people don’t know about him. It’s something I think is important considering how much he styles himself as an idealogue/icon for technological freedom. He still makes good points, but the position he’s doing it from should be known is all.
MakieLab still exists, even though it is now owned by Disney. YouTube still exists and has its own CEO despite being owned by Google. Skoda still exists and is its own entity despite being bought by VW.
I don’t see how his wife being the CEO of a company that got bought by Disney counts as him making points from an unsavoury position.
Firstly, people are not their spouses. Secondly, there’s no proof I’ve seen that this company goes against the things that Cory speaks of.
Judging from the excerpt quoted in my original comment, it has at least been renamed to StudioLab.
counts as him making points from an unsavoury position
Didn’t say that it did. It’s just something that I didn’t know until recently, that I have only seen brought up once in the decade plus of Cory being treated as an important source of truth in this sphere.
I’m not trying to say that it somehow makes him full of shit or anything. Personally it gives me pause about some of his previous rants, and casts a minor amount shade on his position. But I also personally feel that the merits of a point made matter significantly more than the source.
I intentionally said nothing more than the fact itself in my original comment. Everyone is welcome to decide how important or not it is to them personally.
It’s exactly the kind of thing that people tend to use to challenge someone’s position, so I understand the confusion. Just wish people would stop coming at me like I kicked their puppy for bringing it up.
Friendly reminder: Dotorow’s wife is a director of a Disney subsidiary highly likely to be involved with DRM.
EDIT: You all are reading way too far into me bringing this up. Didn’t say this to invalidate his point, mostly wanted to highlight something that I find most people don’t know about him. It’s something I think is important considering how much he styles himself as an idealogue/icon for technological freedom. He still makes good points, but the position he’s doing it from should be known is all.
I don’t have a stake in this argument, as this is my first time learning about Doctorow. I just want to add that a good phrase to express the situation you described is “potential conflict of interest.”
Her running MakieLab (which might indeed utilise DRM, idk) doesn’t invalidate her husband’s point.
It’s no longer Makielab, as it was acquied by Disney. What they actually do now ias a subsidiary is unclear beyond the quote from her Wikipedia page, especially as her personal site linked to by Wikipedia is down.
I spent a good chunk of my teen years on 4chan, I’m normally the one pushing the idea that a good point is valid regardless of the source.
Anyway, I edited my comment and I’ll copy that here: Didn’t say this to invalidate his point, mostly wanted to highlight something that I find most people don’t know about him. It’s something I think is important considering how much he styles himself as an idealogue/icon for technological freedom. He still makes good points, but the position he’s doing it from should be known is all.
MakieLab still exists, even though it is now owned by Disney. YouTube still exists and has its own CEO despite being owned by Google. Skoda still exists and is its own entity despite being bought by VW.
I don’t see how his wife being the CEO of a company that got bought by Disney counts as him making points from an unsavoury position.
Firstly, people are not their spouses. Secondly, there’s no proof I’ve seen that this company goes against the things that Cory speaks of.
Judging from the excerpt quoted in my original comment, it has at least been renamed to StudioLab.
Didn’t say that it did. It’s just something that I didn’t know until recently, that I have only seen brought up once in the decade plus of Cory being treated as an important source of truth in this sphere.
I’m not trying to say that it somehow makes him full of shit or anything. Personally it gives me pause about some of his previous rants, and casts a minor amount shade on his position. But I also personally feel that the merits of a point made matter significantly more than the source.
I intentionally said nothing more than the fact itself in my original comment. Everyone is welcome to decide how important or not it is to them personally.
It’s exactly the kind of thing that people tend to use to challenge someone’s position, so I understand the confusion. Just wish people would stop coming at me like I kicked their puppy for bringing it up.
Doesn’t go against anything he’s ever said.
I met Cory at a book signing and told him how much I loved Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom and he told me his wife works at Disney straight up.
He’s an honest dude who has done more for how we think of the internet (and how it could be) than the majority of humans on this planet.
See Kelly Ann Conway and George Conway.