Disenshittification Nation: How Canada Can Fix the Internet, Win Trump's Trade War, and Make a Genuinely Astonishing Amount of Money

Thirteen years ago, the US bullied Canada into passing laws that ban our tech companies from reverse-engineering, modifying, improving, and disenshittifying the tech products they sell. America told us that unless we passed these laws, they’d slap us with tariffs. Thirteen years on, our tech sector has stagnated. US tech giants spy on us and rip off every performer, seller and news outlet that relies on an app to the tune of 30 cents out of every dollar. They won’t show us the news (not even during wildfires!) *and* we’ve got tariffs.

In this lecture, Cory Doctorow argues that Canada can do better than retaliatory tariffs by changing the way our technologists relate to US Big Tech and creating a vast consumer surplus and a durable source of industrial advantage for Canada.

Check out the PLS homepage for more information.