Druids are one of the most versatile classes in World of Warcraft and Dungeons and Dragons is attempting to recreate that flexibility with recommendations for how to play all four different Druid specializations at the tabletop.

D&D: World of Warcraft Character Creation Guide for All Druid Specs

Druids are a fan-favorite World of Warcraft class that allows players to tank, heal, or heal damage. They have a ton of utility and seem very likely to be equally popular for Dungeons and Dragons players as they form their parties for upcoming adventures in Azeroth.

Druids call upon the power of land, sea, and sky to tear their enemies apart and put their friends back together. Skilled shapeshifters, elementalists, guardians, and healers, Druids are versatile and adaptable spellcasters.

Every Druid in World of Warcraft learns new beast forms: Cat Form, Bear Form, and Travel Form (which includes an Aquatic Form and a Flight Form). These forms take on unique stat blocks for Druids with access to Circle Forms. For Druids without the Circle Forms feature, certain Beast stat blocks are made available.

Druids are already a Dungeons and Dragons class, so that gives players an easy place to start. Once their class is selected, players will want to take one of these branching paths, depending on their specialization preference:

• Balance – Leverage the sacred powers of the moons, the sun, and the stars to keep the elemental forces of the cosmos in equilibrium.
  • The Balance Druid selects the Circle of the Stars subclass and uses the versatility of its Starry Form to take on the appearance of moonkin and adapt their magical aptitude to their circumstances.
• Feral – Pursue a visceral connection to the wild—nature’s eternal dance between predator and prey.
  • The Feral Druid represents nature red in tooth and claw, using the Circle of the Moon subclass and a unique Cat Form to rip nearby foes apart.
• Guardian – Commune with the wild to better understand how life perseveres through adversity.
  • Guardian Druids also use the Circle of the Moon to take on a unique Bear Form that stands between their fellow adventurers and danger, converting magical energy into Temporary Hit Points and imposing Disadvantage on enemy attack rolls.
• Restoration – Where there is decay, bring rejuvenation. Where there is devastation, bring regrowth.
  • The Restoration Druid will pick the Circle of the Land subclass to reflect their relationship with nature’s cycle and use new spells to continuously heal allies.

That should be everything Dungeons and Dragons players need at this point to start formulating ideas for their Druids before the Dungeons and Dragons: World of Warcraft book officially arrives in November.

Be sure to check back soon for lots more Dungeons and Dragons news and updates as the World of Warcraft gameplay expansion release date approaches.

Dungeons and Dragons is available now at local game shops and digitally through D&D Beyond, Roll20, and similar online services. The Dungeons and Dragons: World of Warcraft gameplay expansion releases on November 17, 2026.

The post Dungeons and Dragons: World of Warcraft – How To Play a Balance, Feral, Guardian, or Restoration Druid appeared first on VICE.

Dungeons and Dragons players will have every World of Warcraft class and specialization to pick from when they begin their tabletop adventures in Azeroth, including all three Warrior specializations.

Selecting A D&D Fighter Subclass To Bring WoW Warrior Specs To The Table

Dungeons and Dragons players have an overwhelming number of class/specialization combos to select from as they begin their World of Warcraft campaigns, but players who have narrowed things down to a Warrior have made a good start.

The World of Warcraft Warrior class doesn’t have a 1:1 match in Dungeons and Dragons, but the Fighter class is well-suited bring this WoW class to life at the tabletop.

“Warriors: for when you need a really big axe—which is oftentimes the case in a world of monsters, magic, egos, and armor. A skilled Warrior knocks monsters to the floor, slays enemy tanks, and terrorizes opposing magic users.”

When playing a Warrior, you’ll choose the Fighter class. Warriors specialize in Arms, Fury, or Protection.

Arms Warrior – Deliver devastating blows with two-handed weapons.

The Arms Warrior selects the Battle Master subclass and uses two-handed weapons such as the Greataxe, Greatsword, or Maul to control the battlefield.

Fury Warrior – Become a master of carnage, wielding a weapon in each hand to maximize destruction.

The Fury Warrior selects the Champion subclass and dual-wields weapons (often Scimitars) to push a relentless offense. (Note: Fury Warriors may want to consider instead choosing the Barbarian class and Berserker subclass.)

Protection Warrior – Counter incoming attacks, using your shield to protect your allies as well as yourself.

The Protection Warrior uses the Battle Master subclass to consistently step between their comrades and danger.

Additionally, Warriors who use the Battle Master subclass will gain access to five brand-new maneuver options in the WoW gameplay expansion rules.

That should be just about everything players need to know to start planning out their Warrior builds before the new book arrives in November.

Be sure to check back soon for lots more Dungeons and Dragons news and updates as the World of Warcraft gameplay expansion release date approaches.

Dungeons and Dragons is available now at local game shops and digitally through D&D Beyond, Roll20, and similar online services. The Dungeons and Dragons: World of Warcraft gameplay expansion releases November 17, 2026.

The post Dungeons and Dragons: World of Warcraft – How To Play an Arms, Fury, or Protection Warrior appeared first on VICE.

The Dungeons and Dragons: World of Warcraft gameplay expansion release date is approaching quickly and the team behind the book just offered another in-depth preview full of new details about the subclasses that are included.

Dungeons and Dragons Teases New Flavor and Mechanics for World of Warcraft Subclasses

Dungeons and Dragons players are going to have a ton of exciting choices during character creation for World of Warcraft adventures and campaigns. The extensive new gameplay expansion explains how to bring all WoW classes and every specialization to life at the tabletop.

Although many of the classes and specializations map to existing D&D subclasses, there are nine new or updated subclasses for players to check out, as well. These subclasses were announced earlier, but a new update offers some additional details about the flavor of each subclass and how its mechanics will work.

Here is a breakdown of the biggest new insights from the latest extensive Dungeons and Dragons: World of Warcraft gameplay expansion preview:

• Oath of the Ebon Blade (Death Knight)
  • The Oath of the Ebon Blade subclass adjusts some features in the core Paladin class from the Player’s Handbook. For example, Death Coil replaces Lay on Hands with a pool of dice that can be used to deal damage to enemies or restore Hit Points to Undead, and Runic Smite replaces Paladin’s Smite by swapping the Divine Smite spell with Rune Strike, which deals Necrotic damage instead of Radiant.
  • Their Runeforging feature grants their primary weapon a rune that bestows a unique ability according to the Death Knight’s specialization: Blood, which manipulates life energy; Frost, which calls upon the forces of winter to slow and shatter foes; or Unholy, which curses and debilitates opponents. When they need to make a hit count, Runic Power allows them to expend a use of Channel Divinity to gain an additional benefit after landing a Rune Strike.
  • As the Death Knight levels up and slays the foes of Azeroth, they’ll use Runic Mastery to activate a powerful once per day ability from the rune on their primary weapon. At their peak, the Death Knight can use a Bonus action to activate their Aspect of the Horsemen, which allows them to gain the benefits of runes outside their specialization.
• Demon Hunter (Demon Hunter)
  • The Demon Hunter subclass, like the Oath of the Ebon Blade subclass, modifies some of the features in the core class—in this case, Ranger. For example, the Demon Hunter’s Spellcasting Focus is an Arcane Focus (rather than a Druidic Focus) to reflect the nature of the class’ relationship with magic, the Void Warrior option has been added to the Fighting Style feature to allow for Warlock cantrips (rather than Druidic Warrior’s Druid cantrips), and the Ranger’s Feral Senses were replaced with the Demon Hunter’s Improved Spectral Sight to better see through illusions.
  • Demon Hunters harvest the energy of souls to fuel some of their abilities using the Soul Fragments feature. When a nearby enemy dies, a Demon Hunter can collect that soul fragment. Then, later, the Demon Hunter can cast certain spells with those fragments or use the Soul Cleave trait to emit a whirlwind of soul energy that damages nearby enemies and restores Hit Points. With Spectral Sight, even the initiate Demon Hunter has 10 feet of Blindsight.
  • Demon Hunters that have slain many Burning Legion hosts and continued to master the arcane arts will gain the Torment feature, which heightens the power of Hunter’s Mark and keeps a marked target’s focus on the hunter. As the Demon Hunter continues its training, they will use Illidari Knowledge to use soul fragments to cast additional spells, including Counterspell and a new ranged attack spell.
  • As a Demon Hunter hones their skill further, they always start combat with at least one soul fragment and Soul Cleave deals more damage. Once a Demon Hunter reaches the height of their power, no demon or voidwalker or undead pest can escape their Improved Spectral Sight feature and its 30 feet of Truesight.
• Warrior of Mystic Brews (Monk)
  • Warriors of Mystic Brews gain proficiency in Performance to reflect their skill in passing themselves off as nonsensical or erratic, as well as proficiency in Brewer’s Supplies to prepare them for a future in magical beverage-making. At this same time, these Monks also learn their signature Drunken Technique, which grants them additional speed when they use Patient Defense and allows them to make an Unarmed Strike as part of the same Bonus action.
  • Warriors of Mystic Brews will use the Mystic Brew feature to create potions they can drink that will grant them damage Resistances, a pool of dice that can be used to boost their own healing, or the ability to conjure a Cone of flame. As their skill as a brewer heightens, they can learn new Mystic Brew options, including recipes that bestow luck and improve mobility.
  • Once they’ve fully honed their craft, this Monk uses Master Brewer to mix two recipes into one drink. Then, they’ll use Intoxicated Frenzy to charge throughout a room and attack everybody within reach, knocking them Prone on a hit.
• Oath of the Holy (Paladin)
  • Once they take their oath, a Holy Paladin will use Oath of the Holy Spells to heal many allies at once, protect their friends from death, and cleanse an ally of a debilitating effect or harmful spell. Additionally, the Beacon of Light feature uses Channel Divinity to wrap an ally with holy energy that restores half as many Hit Points to that ally whenever the Paladin heals anybody else.
  • As the Paladin slays evildoers and rescues the innocent, they will develop a Lightbringer’s Aura to boost their healing abilities even further. Whenever the Holy Paladin heals creatures within its Aura of Protection, the Lightbringer’s Aura will grant them additional Hit Points. Later, with Infusion of Light, the Paladin can restore its own pool of Lay on Hands points by dealing Radiant damage to enemies—in essence, siphoning the power of life from the agents of Evil and delivering it into the hands of the Good (or at least, the Good enough).
  • At the apotheosis of their divine power, the Oath of the Holy Paladin can use their Holy Deliverance feature to boost their Aura of Protection. The aura now emanates sunlight (vampires beware), and Bloodied allies that start their turn in the aura regain Hit Points.
• Discipline Domain (Priest)
  • The Discipline Domain is a Cleric subclass. Right from the start, Discipline Priests gain access to Discipline Domain spells that will help them shield allies and devastate enemies. Further reinforcing the Discipline Priest’s dedication to balance, their Channel Divinity option Holy Bolt can damage an enemy and heal an ally at the same time. They’ll also use Atonement to grant a temporary blessing to any creature they heal with a spell; then, when they deal damage to a creature, those blessed allies will regain Hit Points! This allows the Discipline Priest to bring multiple party members back from 0 Hit Points without having to cast a spell like Mass Healing Word—instead, they can impose balance upon the universe by damaging enemies and healing allies at the same time.
  • As these Priests further hone their practice, they’ll bestow creatures blessed by Atonement with a Luminous Barrier. This magical ward grants Temporary Hit Points and bestows Resistance to all damage while the creature has those Temporary Hit Points.
  • At the pinnacle of their power, a Discipline Priest can send their Holy Bolt to several enemies at once (healing an equal number of allies in the process, of course), and they can teleport immediately before firing the bolts.
• Shadow Domain (Priest)
  • The Shadow Domain is also a Cleric subclass. Once a Priest has embraced the darkness, they gain access to Shadow Domain Spells (including several new entries) that prepare them to twist minds, drain life, and call upon forces dangerously close to the Old Gods. A Shadow Priest initiate can also use their Channel Divinity to take on a Shadowform, which allows them to Hide more easily and empowers their spells that deal Psychic or Necrotic damage. And with Devouring Plague, they can siphon health from creatures who fail a saving throw.
  • As they themselves fall deeper and deeper into shadow, the Shadow Priest will be able to take a Reaction that disperses themselves into shadowy energy as a defense mechanism. This Dispersion lasts 1 round, and when it ends, the Shadow Priest can expend Hit Point Dice to regain a massive amount of Hit Points. They can also Fly up to 40 feet, so when they reform into a corporeal champion of Azeroth, they can be out of melee range of the creature that attacked them.
  • At the height of the Shadow Priest’s power, their Shadowform will also restore Hit Points to nearby creatures when they deal Necrotic or Psychic damage to enemies.
• Swashbuckler (Rogue)
  • Early on in their journey, the Swashbuckler will use Fancy Footwork to evade Opportunity Attacks from creatures they’ve already attacked that turn. When they enter battle, their Rakish Audacity will add a boost to their Initiative, and they can use Sneak Attack when darting into the backlines to solo an enemy mage or archer.
  • As the Swashbuckler duels their way into becoming a master of their craft, their Panache will add new options to their Cunning Strike repertoire, allowing them to goad opponents into attacking them (before Dashing away with Cunning Action!) or Charm creatures for a short time. Leveling up further, the Swashbuckler will add more options with Dashing Strikes, which can invigorate allies or parry enemy strikes.
  • Swashbucklers at the top of their game will use the Master Duelist feature to make an additional attack against a target they just hit with a Sneak Attack.
• Path of the Spiritual Guardian (Shaman)
  • Once they begin their training, the Path of the Spiritual Guardian Shaman will summon Spiritual Protectors to Distract, Hinder, or Strike the opponent on a hit. As the Shaman continues their adventures in Azeroth, their Spirit Shield will protect nearby allies from harm.
  • At higher levels, the Spiritual Guardian Shaman can use Consult the Spirits to cast certain Divination spells without needing Material components. They may ask the spirits for advice about the party’s latest scheme or rely on them to spy on a nearby location.
  • With their final ability, Spirits’ Fury, this Shaman can make an additional attack when they land a powerful blow, becoming a relentless force of destruction on the battlefield.
• Path of the Elements (Shaman)
  • A Shaman who has just begun to walk the Path of the Elements will call upon the forces of nature with Raging Elements. While a rage is active, they can use a Bonus action to summon powers of ice, lava, or lightning. These powers build on each other, with Icefury empowering the next instance of Fire damage, Lava Burst empowering the next instance of Lightning damage, and so on. This encourages the Shaman to create balance amongst the chaos by moving from one damage type to another.
  • At higher levels, a Path of the Elements Shaman will use Echo of the Elements to cast certain utility elemental spells by expending a use of Rage. Then, the Primordial Bond feature will cause the elemental magic surging from the Shaman’s rage to bestow a protective effect.
  • In time, the Elemental Overload feature completes their evolution: their Raging Elements options now reduce enemy damage, deal lasting damage, or damage nearby enemies.

That’s a ton of information to absorb, but it seems like Dungeons and Dragons is going all out when it comes to bringing all the flavor of World of Warcraft’s classes and specializations to the tabletop.

Be sure to check back soon for lots more Dungeons and Dragons news as the World of Warcraft gameplay expansion release date approaches.

Dungeons and Dragons is available now at local game shops and digitally through D&D Beyond, Roll20, and similar online services. The Dungeons and Dragons: World of Warcraft gameplay expansion releases on November 17, 2026.

The post Dungeons and Dragons Reveals More Details About All Nine World of Warcraft Subclasses appeared first on VICE.

Dungeons and Dragons has finally revealed all the details about its new modern horror adventure and the new collection includes some exciting new character options for players to explore.

Unlock The Reborn Species in Project Lamordia

After dropping a very mysterious and creepy teaser trailer a few weeks ago, D&D Beyond and Dungeons and Dragons are finally ready to unveil Project_Lamordia.

“Monsters are now machines, spells become technology, and every unlocked door reveals a darker mystery. Built for eerie adventures and minimal prep, PROJECT_LAMORDIA is ready to run.”

The new modern horror adventure is available through D&D Beyond now for $14.99 and offers a collection of resources for both Dungeons Masters and players. DMs will find three one-shots that they can use to run some scary adventures during spooky season, while players get a brand-new playable species and new Dark Gifts.

Here is a full breakdown of everything included in the Project_Lamordia materials:

• 3 one-shots that can be connected into a full adventure, each with a map to traverse through the haunted halls of Mordenheim Kinetics
• 1 character species, the Reborn, whose consciousness was uploaded into a synthetic body after death
• 4 new character backgrounds and 4 feats (Dark Gifts)
• New mechanics to help you play desperate survivors in a modern world, including 4 preset playable stat blocks
• 5 monstrous stat blocks blending gothic dread and technological horror
• Terrify your table instantly with Project_Lamordia’s Quickplay Maps, complete with preloaded creature tokens, fog of war, and Scene Prep notes pinned to each map

Use a new species, the Reborn, who died on Mordenheim Kinetics’ operating table and woke up in a synthetic shell, with origin tables that decide what their memories lost in translation.

Players can also step into the role of a survivor with new backgrounds and feats designed for this techno-horror adventure.

It should be very exciting to see how many players and DMs embrace this new content and experiment with the modern horror settings over the next few weeks. The three one-shot adventures can be tackles as standalone content or woven into a large narrative.

Be sure to check back soon for lots more Dungeons and Dragons news and updates.

Dungeons and Dragons is available now at local game shops and digitally through D&D Beyond, Roll20, and other similar online services.

The post Dungeons and Dragons Modern Horror Adventure Adds A New Playable Species and 4 Backgrounds appeared first on VICE.

Today's links

• How labor rights rescued Ultima from a monopolist: If you care about labor justice and artists' rights, stop focusing on copyright.
• Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
• Object permanence: China unblocks Wikipedia; CCC cracks the Bundestrojaner; "Children of the Sky"; "Messy"; Every top Icelandic banker is guilty; Climate activism x digital activism; Gene Kan on P2P's future; Larry Ellison x mass surveillance; W3C v patents; "Work from home" in the cybercrime supply-chain; "Nursery Rhyme Comics"; Glitchy tea-set; Tourist Guy; Vista v reinstallation; Ryanair v your bladder; Wells Fargo CEO loves "sales culture"; "Attention Merchants"; Orban v free press; AI v GIGO; Dylan wins the Nobel; India's starving kids app; Adobe's spyware copyfraud; Charter blackmails customers with bad credit threats; Fix UK housing.
• Upcoming appearances: Paris, Vancouver, Victoria, Ottawa, Kilkenny, Sheffield, Oxford, Montreal.
• Recent appearances: Where I've been.
• Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
• Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
• Colophon: All the rest.

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How labor rights rescued Ultima from a monopolist (permalink)

If you work in the media, you have doubtless had a lifetime of encouragement to treat copyright as your primary source of economic protection, and doubtless you've been told that this protection arises from the fact that copyright is a property right – specifically, it's a subspecies of "intellectual property":

https://locusmag.com/feature/cory-doctorow-ip/

Property rights are capitalism's holy sacrament, so of course, it's natural to treasure any property right you can lay claim to. But this is a trap. Creative workers aren't asset speculators, we're workers. When we bargain with a media company to sell them our copyright, we're just bargaining to sell our labor, not our property.

This is a distinction with a difference. Property rights are alienable. When you negotiate to sell your property to someone else, you propose to transfer the title to that property. If you sell your house, you don't get to move back in if you change your mind later. Sell your car, and you must not get in and drive it away.

Nominally, creative workers only bargain away some of their copyright, because copyright is also divisible. You can sell US English print rights to a novel, a one-month license to synch a song to an advertisement, or the right to display a painting for a year.

But here's the thing about property rights: the most reliable predictor of how many property rights you must give up in a sale isn't how many property rights you started with – it's how much bargaining power you have. For 50 years, governments have expanded copyright in every way, making it last longer, cover more works and restrict more uses, all backstopped by ever-steepening penalties. 50 years later, media companies – our bosses – are larger and more profitable than they've ever been, and we're poorer than we've ever been. The share of the money generated by our labor has declined, even as our rights over the product of that labor have expanded.

How to make sense of this? It's easy, once you factor in power. In a world of five publishers, four studios, three labels, two app companies and a single ebook/audiobook company, getting more copyright to bargain with just means getting more copyright to bargain away. When copyright's term expanded from "life plus 50 years" to "life plus 70 years," our bosses simply demanded the entirety of the new term, and didn't offer us a dime more.

This is the thesis of Chokepoint Capitalism, the book on Big Tech, Big Media, and creative labor markets Rebecca Giblin and I published in 2022:

https://www.beacon.org/Chokepoint-Capitalism-P2020.aspx

Chokepoint Capitalism is broken into two parts: the first half of the book is a series of pitiless, plain-language dissections of the baroque scams that media companies have used to make themselves richer from our work, from Spotify to Amazon to Livenation and beyond. From reader feedback, I can tell you that these chapters will make you very angry, because once you strip away all the deliberate obfuscation, all you're left with is one screw-job after another, each of which makes the creators you love poorer even as you pay more for their work.

But then there's the second half of the book. This section is devoted to "shovel-ready" policy solutions, each of which is designed to change the "distribution" of the spoils of the media industry, putting more money in workers' pockets at the expense of our bosses. None of these are things you can do as a "conscious consumer." The monopolistic destruction of creators' livelihoods is a systemic problem and you can't solve it by shopping better.

The point of these chapters is to lay out what we must demand from our policymakers when (inevitably), they propose to "solve" the problem of worsening straits for creative workers – and to help creative workers understand that when our bosses demand more copyright, that's not there to benefit us.

One of these systemic solutions is "termination of transfer," a simple and radical idea that has a proven track-record of making creative workers richer at our bosses' expense. Simply put, "termination of transfer" is the statutory right to void any contract you've signed to transfer your copyright to someone else. In the USA, the 1976 Copyright Act introduced a 35-year termination right. 35 years after you sign any copyright contract, you can file some paperwork with the US Copyright Office and get that copyright back, no matter what your contract says.

Now, most creative works don't have a commercial life after 35 years (very few works are commercially viable even after the original US copyright term of 14 years), but for those that do, termination of transfer is a reliable way to address the extremely common situation in which a creator signs away their rights for a low price, not knowing that it will become a lasting hit. Once you've scored that hit, you can probably get a better deal from your next work, but the deal for that hit is done and can't be altered.

Termination solves this. From The Babysitters Club to the early Stephen King novels to George Clinton's entire catalog, termination of transfer has put lots of money into creative workers' pockets at the expense of corporations that ripped them off at the start of their careers.

From the start, there was no question whether termination of transfer would make it into Chokepoint Capitalism. Rebecca is one of the world's leading experts on the subject, having co-authored the definitive study of termination:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/09/26/take-it-back/

In the book, we note that – unlike longer copyright terms – termination has a proven track record of putting groceries on creators' tables, braces on their kids' teeth, and a roof over their heads. We go over the legislative history of termination in the 1976 Act, noting that it was originally supposed to be automatic and kick in after just 20 years. If we want to make creative workers richer, changing the 35-year administrative right into an automatic 20-year termination right is a no-brainer amendment to copyright law.

How did an automatic right that kicked in after 20 years turn into a right you have to apply for after 35 years? Simple: our bosses hate termination. How much do they hate it? Well, take Mitch Glazier, the head of the Recording Industry Association of America, where he draws a $1.3m annual salary to represent the record labels.

Before Glazier got the RIAA gig, he was an obscure Congressional staffer, but he was forced out of the job after he snuck a clause into an otherwise unrelated bill that killed termination of transfer for recording artists. This was so outrageous that Congress actually convened a special session so they could rip out Glazier's amendment, and Glazier got a new job as a millionaire lobbyist for the recording industry:

https://pluralistic.net/2026/03/03/its-a-trap-2/#inheres-at-the-moment-of-fixation

Termination is hugely useful and quite radical. Last year saw Gary K Wolf, creator of the novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? (later adapted by Disney as Who Framed Roger Rabbit?) claw back his rights to the book and its characters, in order to continue the series:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/11/18/im-not-bad/#im-just-drawn-that-way

In 2023, Bill Willingham terminated the transfer of his wildly successful graphic novel series Fables from DC and released the copyright into the public domain:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/15/fairy-use-tales/#sampling-license

And now, Richard Garriott, AKA "Lord British," has claimed back the rights to the groundbreaking Ultima series of computer role-playing games, which he sold to Electronic Arts in 1992:

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/richard-garriott-is-officially-regaining-control-of-the-ultima-series/

On the Techjess podcast, Garriott marveled at how easy the process was: "there’s a really weird United States copyright law that says if you are the original holder of a copyright and you assign it or sell it to any publisher or any other entity, after 35 years, you can just take it back":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2El7VtPuSzs

EA killed off Ultima in 2000, and it has languished since, despite an ardent fandom. Garriott has vowed to reissue the old games and is mulling new ones.

All this brings me back to property rights. Property rights are uniquely unsuitable to this kind of arrangement. You don't get to move back into the house your parents sold 35 years ago, and if you did, the photographer who took the family portrait in the hallway wouldn't be allowed to break in and take it away 35 years after you sat for it.

Termination of transfer isn't an "IP right" – it's a labor right. It belongs to the large class of rights that are far more important and useful than mere property rights, such as privacy rights and human rights:

https://pluralistic.net/2026/09/28/cost-of-everything/#value-of-nothing

If copyright were just about property rights, then termination of transfer would be inconceivable. Termination is a vestigial labor right at the very periphery of copyright. It protects artists, and it can only do so because it is not a property right.

This is one of the themes in The Bezzle, my 2024 historical technothriller, starring my two-fisted forensic accountant hero Martin Hench who uses termination to help an artist claw back his rights from an unscrupulous former manager who forged his signature decades before (this plotline is based on the true story of Parliament/Funkadelic's George Clinton!):

https://craphound.com/bezzle/

If you signed away your rights 35 years ago and want to get them back, check out the Authors Alliance, a nonprofit whose advisory board I volunteer for. We produced a tool that automates all the hardest parts of terminating your transfers and getting your rights back:

https://www.authorsalliance.org/resources/termination-of-transfer/

Some of our most ardent fans are academics, whose publicly funded papers are published in journals dominated by a cartel of giant companies that do not pay the authors, nor the editors, nor the reviewers, but still claim all rights and charge the institutions that funded the research they publish tens of thousands of dollars per journal to access that research:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/16/the-public-sphere/#not-the-elsevier

But it's not just academics who have an interest in termination of transfer. It's video game authors, novelists, musicians – and maybe you, someday!

(Image: Reda Kerbouche, CC BY-SA 4.0; Thegreenj, CC BY-SA 3.0, modified)

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Hey look at this (permalink)

• The 15 best Luddite horror films https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/the-15-best-luddite-horror-films

• Enshittification https://scrollart.org/artwork/enshittification/

• Mamdani’s “Richard Scarry Socialism” Can Make City Life Simple Again https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/mamdanis-richard-scarry-socialism-can-make-city-life-simple-again

• The people holding up the internet https://sheets.works/data-viz/holding-up-the-internet

• Workers behind Dungeons & Dragons vote to unionize https://www.avclub.com/dungeons-dragons-magic-the-gathering-union

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Object permanence (permalink)

#25yrsago Tourist Guy https://web.archive.org/web/20011009234007/http://www.touristofdeath.com/

#25yrsago Gene Kan on Open Web Services https://web.archive.org/web/20011031234135/http://www.openp2p.com/pub/a/p2p/2001/08/02/openservices.html

#25yrsago Larry Ellison wants to spy on everyone https://web.archive.org/web/20011206002725/http://www.oracle.com/corporate/index.html?digitalid_comp.html

#25yrsago W3C ponders patents in web standards https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-patentpolicy-comment/2001Oct/1488.html

#25yrsago Adobe updates the ebook reader that Syklarov cracked https://web.archive.org/web/20011107145015/http://www.vnunet.com/News/1126057

#20yrsago Hungarian airport proposes “nonremovable” RFIDs for every passenger http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6044310.stm

#20yrsago China unblocks Wikipedia, even though it won’t censor https://web.archive.org/web/20061016133232/http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/departments/online/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003251388

#20yrsago Eudora going open source, to be based on Thunderbird https://web.archive.org/web/20061014163143/http://www.qualcomm.com/press/releases/2006/061011_project_collaboration_mozilla.html

#20yrsago Vista license only lets you reinstall your OS on new PCs twice https://web.archive.org/web/20061022161256/http://www.techweb.com/wire/software/193300234

#15yrsago Why handmade keys? https://makezine.com/article/maker-news/rebuilt-keys-jimmy-diresta/

#15yrsago Ryanair declares war on bodily fluids, vows to remove toilets https://www.the-independent.com/travel/news-and-advice/ryanair-unveils-its-latest-plan-to-save-money-remove-toilets-from-the-plane-2369232.html

#15yrsago Comic about the complexity and decline of copyright https://web.archive.org/web/20111014201558/http://www.mediademocracyfund.org/about/mdf-voices/appropriart-a-graphic-about-copyright-susie-cagle-co-produced-mdf-and-gia

#15yrsago Chaos Computer Club cracks Germany’s illegal government malware, a trojan that spies on your PC and lets anyone off the street hijack it https://www.ccc.de/en/updates/2011/staatstrojaner

#15yrsago Vernor Vinge’s Children of the Sky: bootstrapping high-tech civilization from hive-mind Machiavellis https://memex.craphound.com/2011/10/11/vernor-vinges-children-of-the-sky-bootstrapping-high-tech-civilization-from-hive-mind-machiavellis/

#15yrsago Facebook’s misleading “log out” button and the future of privacy legislation https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/10/facebook’s-hotel-california-cross-site-tracking-and-potential-impact-digital-privacy

#15yrsago How online crooks use “work from home” patsies to launder goods and forward them offshore https://krebsonsecurity.com/2011/10/shady-reshipping-centers-exposed-part-i/

#15yrsago Nursery Rhyme Comics: Great comic illustrators do Mother Goose https://memex.craphound.com/2011/10/12/nursery-rhyme-comics-great-comic-illustrators-do-mother-goose/

#15yrsago 3D printed “glitchy” tea-set https://www.plummerfernandez.com/works/glitch-reality/

#10yrsago Meet the WWI women who pretended to be rocks for the war effort https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/why-women-pretended-to-be-creepy-rocks-and-trees-in-nyc-parks-during-wwi

#10yrsago Bernie Sanders’ touching video endorsing his brother’s candidacy for David Cameron’s old Parliamentary seat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAH8FJ3g49g

#10yrsago Messy: When automated anti-disaster systems make things worse, and what to do about it https://memex.craphound.com/2016/10/11/messy-when-automated-anti-disaster-systems-make-things-worse-and-what-to-do-about-it/

#10yrsago Icelandic Supreme Court: all nine top bankers are guilty of market manipulation https://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/politics_and_society/2016/10/06/iceland_finds_all_guilty_in_banker_market_abuse_cas/

#10yrsago When “reputation management” becomes perjury, forgery and fraud against America’s federal courts https://web.archive.org/web/20161011055317/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2016/10/10/dozens-of-suspicious-court-cases-with-missing-defendants-aim-at-getting-web-pages-taken-down-or-deindexed/?utm_term=.379bd5b35a91

#10yrsago If you bail on Yahoo Mail, forget about having your email forwarded https://web.archive.org/web/20161012182945/https://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TEC_YAHOO_BREACH?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULt

#10yrsago The clumsy, amateurish IoT botnet has now infected devices in virtually all of the world’s countries https://web.archive.org/web/20161012150926/https://motherboard.vice.com/read/internet-of-things-mirai-malware-reached-almost-all-countries-on-earth

#10yrsago Wells Fargo whistleblower: once I complained, they started denying me bathroom breaks https://web.archive.org/web/20161014180455/https://money.cnn.com/2016/10/11/investing/wells-fargo-intimidation-bathroom-breaks/index.html

#10yrsago The astounding story of Iceland’s constitution – and its government’s failure https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1qk-BQwNlA

#10yrsago Wells Fargo’s new CEO previously denied that the bank’s sales culture had any problems https://web.archive.org/web/20161014023238/https://consumerist.com/2016/10/13/new-wells-fargo-ceo-recently-denied-overbearing-sales-culture-that-created-fake-account-fiasco/

#10yrsago The Attention Merchants: a deep dive into the origins of the surveillance economy https://memex.craphound.com/2016/10/13/the-attention-merchants-a-deep-dive-into-the-origins-of-the-surveillance-economy/

#10yrsago AI’s blind spot: garbage in, garbage out https://web.archive.org/web/20190429032014/https://www.nature.com/news/there-is-a-blind-spot-in-ai-research-1.20805

#10yrsago Hungary’s Prime Minister shuts down opposition press, then goes after everyone else https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/13/hungary-future-europe-far-right-viktor-orban

#10yrsago Using the science of group conflict to understand Trump’s campaign https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2016/10/12/trumps-brilliant-manipulation-of-the-science-of-group-conflict/

#10yrsago Bob Dylan is the first songwriter to win the Nobel Prize for literature https://www.csmonitor.com/Arts-Culture/Books/2016/1013/Bob-Dylan-lyrics-as-literature-First-songwriter-to-win-a-Nobel-Prize

#10yrsago Poland’s outrageous abortion law is back https://globalvoices.org/2016/10/13/new-abortion-ban-proposals-in-poland-mean-the-black-protest-movement-isnt-over-yet/

#10yrsago Hate crimes spike after Brexit https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-37640982

#5yrsago India funded a starving kids' app, but not food https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/13/theres-an-app-for-that/#solutionism

#5yrsago Adobe uses copyfraud to preserve spyware https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/13/theres-an-app-for-that/#gnash

#5yrsago Charter uses bad credit threats to corral ex-subscribers https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/13/theres-an-app-for-that/#thugs-charter

#1yrago The curious, intertwined history of climate and digital rights activism https://pluralistic.net/2025/10/11/cyber-rights-now/#better-late-than-never

#1yrago How to fix the UK housing crisis https://pluralistic.net/2025/10/13/castles-not-assets/#steve-keen

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Upcoming appearances (permalink)

• Paris: Slow Tech Summit, Oct 15
  https://slowtechsummit.com/

• Vancouver: Read, Resist, Repair, Rejoice (Vancouver Writers Festival), Oct 19
  https://writersfest.bc.ca/festival-event-2026/01

• Victoria: Munro's Books, Oct 20
  https://www.munrobooks.com/events/6113620261020

• Vancouver: Life After AI (Vancouver Writers Festival), Oct 22
  https://writersfest.bc.ca/festival-event-2026/46

• Ottawa: Life After AI (Ottawa Writers Festival), Oct 24
  https://writersfestival.org/event/life-after-ai

• Kilkenny (Kilkenomics), Nov 6-8
  https://kilkenomics.com/

• Vancouver: Enshittification (Sid Williams Theatre Society), Nov 10
  https://www.sidwilliamstheatre.com/events/cory-doctorow-talks-enshittification/

• Vancouver: BC Policy Solutions Gala, Nov 12
  https://bcpolicy.ca/gala/

• Sheffield: Reverse Centaur at Juno Books, Nov 25
  https://www.outsavvy.com/event/40274/cory-doctorow-in-conversation

• Oxford: Bennett Oxford Symposium on Open Code in Science, Dec 9
  https://www.bennett.ox.ac.uk/events/2026-bennett-institute-symposium/

• Montreal: World Science Fiction Convention, Sep 2-6
  https://montreal2027.ca/en

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Recent appearances (permalink)

• Terms of Service with Clare Duffy (CNN)
  https://www.cnn.com/audio/podcasts/terms-of-service-with-clare-duffy/episodes/458ce968-af5d-11f0-b539-13ed2afe25f8

• AI, Work, and Power (Software Engineering Daily)
  AI, Work, and Power https://softwareengineeringdaily.com/podcasts/cory-doctorow-on-ai-work-and-power/

• AI, Corporate Power, and the Fight for Worker Control (Plutopia)
  https://plutopia.io/cory-doctorow-ai-corporate-power-and-the-fight-for-worker-control/

• How to Think About AI—Before It’s Too Late (Daniel Solove)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0xR3uEgGcc

• Could Tech Bosses Destroy Life As We Know It? (Politics JOE)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PL4VktU0SgY

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Latest books (permalink)

• "The Reverse-Centaur's Guide to AI," a short book about being a better AI critic, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, June 2026
  https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374621568/thereversecentaursguidetolifeafterai/

• "Canny Valley": A limited edition collection of the collages I create for Pluralistic, self-published, September 2025 https://pluralistic.net/2025/09/04/illustrious/#chairman-bruce

• "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It," Farrar, Straus, Giroux, October 7 2025
  https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/

• "Picks and Shovels": a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2025 (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865908/picksandshovels).

• "The Bezzle": a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about prison-tech and other grifts, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2024 (thebezzle.org).

• "The Lost Cause:" a solarpunk novel of hope in the climate emergency, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), November 2023 (http://lost-cause.org).

• "The Internet Con": A nonfiction book about interoperability and Big Tech (Verso) September 2023 (http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org). Signed copies at Book Soup (https://www.booksoup.com/book/9781804291245).

• "Red Team Blues": "A grabby, compulsive thriller that will leave you knowing more about how the world works than you did before." Tor Books http://redteamblues.com.

• "Chokepoint Capitalism: How to Beat Big Tech, Tame Big Content, and Get Artists Paid, with Rebecca Giblin", on how to unrig the markets for creative labor, Beacon Press/Scribe 2022 https://chokepointcapitalism.com

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Upcoming books (permalink)

• "The Post-American Internet," a geopolitical sequel of sorts to Enshittification, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2027

• "Unauthorized Bread": a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, April 20, 2027

• "Enshittification, Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It" (the graphic novel), Firstsecond, 2027

• "The Memex Method," Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2027

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Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources:

Currently writing:

• “Once Is Enemy Action,” a science fiction novel about the origins of modern technofascism. Today's words: 562 (24528 total).

• "The Post-American Internet," a sequel to "Enshittification," about the better world the rest of us get to have now that Trump has torched America. Fourth draft completed. Submitted to editor.

• A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING

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This work – excluding any serialized fiction – is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution.

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