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.
“Unauthorized Bread” raises the problem of the diffusion of computers in devices and also in vehicles with some advantages but also with consequent limitations. There’s a growing tendency to sell a user license rather than the property and to limit the possibilities of using the product by contractually binding them. The legal consequences weigh on the users and in this novella, the issue is more serious because the users are refugees who risk losing the little they obtained if they violate contracts they had to accept without being able to choose.
The problem of user licenses and limitations imposed by a contract is developed step by step through Salima’s experience. Initially, Cory Doctorow focuses on the toaster that starts refusing to work after its manufacturer goes bankrupt. The situation is familiar in the sense that we already live in a society where computers are increasingly present in different forms in homes. It’s a situation that increases the chances of malfunctions that require you to follow various procedures to restore them.
The next step concerns Salima and her neighbors’ violation of the smart appliances license. Cory Doctorow doesn’t go into technical and legal details but tries to explain these factors using simple terms. The fact that Salima and the other characters are refugees becomes important because they’re people who couldn’t choose those appliances. The owner of the building earns money from their use, which is why refugees can live in those apartments.
It takes specific knowledge to understand all the legal implications of a user license. This means that we all tend to accept their terms without understanding them 100% but generally, we can choose whether to buy a device whose ownership is limited but the refugees of “Unauthorized Bread” had no choice. At the same time, if they get caught violating those user licenses they could lose what little they have.
Salima’s story doesn’t delve into the refugee problem but offers some reference to the vulnerability caused by their situation. There are more general considerations about the problems the poor may have: the priority of elevator access in a building with dozens of stories for wealthy tenants is the symbol of inequality. They’re not the main themes but they remind us how certain categories are more vulnerable from various points of view.
“Unauthorized Bread” isn’t an action story, so the pace is slow. It’s a story very focused on ethical and moral issues related in particular to the growing limitations of the ownership of electronic devices. It’s the kind of story you hope is science fiction but fear it isn’t because it’s too close to reality. It offers food for thought and we should all reflect on those issues to have greater awareness in our purchases and for this reason, I recommend reading this novella. The anthology “Radicalized” is available on Amazon USA, UK, and Canada.
