The Coming War on General Computation (2011)

Cory Doctorow argues that society still misunderstands general-purpose computers, tracing the conflict back to early software distribution on floppy disks, which was easily duplicated and prompted ineffective DRM schemes such as physical dongles and hidden sectors. He notes that these protections alienated legitimate users while pirates simply reverse-engineered and cracked the software, exposing the futility of copy-prevention measures.