The novella “Unauthorized Bread” by Cory Doctorow was published for the first time in 2019 as part of the anthology “Radicalized”.

Salima is a refugee who managed to arrive in the USA, where she lives in a building with other people in the same situation. Her apartment is equipped with smart appliances whose use must comply with a rather strict contract. When two of the companies that produce those appliances go bankrupt, their products stop working.

On the dark side of the Internet, Salima finds unauthorized and absolutely illegal solutions to make her appliances work again and without limitations. She helps her neighbors reprogram them and teaches the kids in the building how to do it but after a while, she discovers that if they get caught they could be evicted and even go to jail.