My Orycon panelmate Cory Doctorow has an essay in Forbes Magazine of all places, talking about his role as an author in the post-scarcity world. I am far from universally agreeing with everything Cory says, but I'm right with him down the line with his thinking on literature, the role of free works in the entertainment ecosystem and such. I and other lovers of literature owe Cory a lot for actually putting his nuts on the line and living according to his beliefs. Without his example, we'd have a lot of theory with no case studies, and for being that case study I thank him.

I especially like his dig at Forbes, pointing out that giving his books away for free is one of the things that led to him getting the high-paying and fairly cush gig writing that essay for them. Self-referential meta-smack talk! I love it.