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LIT-753: Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It

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Properties3
StatusUnavailable — registered 2026-10-05 from Open Library and the author's own book listing, not read: no copy was sought, the book being in copyright and commercially published. Doctorow's thesis is read first-hand in his 2023 essay "Tiktok's enshittification" (LIT-731), the post that named the concept, and in his 2024 DEF CON talk (LIT-033). Filed because it is his book-length statement of enshittification, which the owner's essay cites. On 2026-10-14 a lawful full text was sought and none was reached, and in particular no Creative Commons or free edition was found, though Doctorow released several earlier books that way. His own site, craphound.com, lists the book among his non-fiction with no "Download For Free" link, where it gives one for older titles such as Context and Little Brother; its Enshittification category page has only tour and podcast posts. The publisher page (us.macmillan.com) returned HTTP 403. Two web searches for a CC licence or free download found none. OpenAlex: no DOI to look up, and its title search refused the request (the shared daily budget was exhausted). Unpaywall: no DOI to query. Crossref holds no record of the book; its one record with the title is a third-party ResearchHub upload of a MOBI file, an unauthorised repost, not used. Europe PMC: no hit. Internet Archive: only talks, podcasts and an audiobook promo, no text of the book. Its status is not a judgement on merit. It stays Unavailable until a copy is supplied.
Version2
Tagssociety-and-governance

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Cory Doctorow (2025), Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It, New York: MCD / Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-61932-9 — https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/

Key takeaways

Registered, not read. What the record holds of Doctorow’s account comes from the 2023 essay that named it (LIT-731) and the 2024 DEF CON talk (LIT-033). Whether the book changes the three-stage lifecycle, the role of lock-in, or the remedies those texts give is not known here.

Standing in the record

Filed on 2026-10-05 at the owner’s request. The account is THEORY-150.

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