See, I think this is on slashdot for two reasons: 1) Slashdot hates DRM and will publish just about any piece criticizing it, regardless of its bearing to reality. 2) Slashdot likes Cory Doctorow because he's a poster boy for item 1. Being passionate is not the same thing as knowing what the hell you're talking about. If he were running a marketing seminar, I wouldn't have any objections. But he tends to wax philosophical on legal and historical subjects about which he has no real knowledge.

...why anyone takes Cory Doctorow seriously?

He's a political activist and passable young-adult sci-fi author who contributes to a geek blog. He's an expert on nothing. He has not formally studied anything. He mouths off about copyright all the time, but his grasp of law and legal history is laughable. Yet he consistently makes headlines for saying asinine things about subjects about which he has no expertise.

How do I get people to pay me for saying stupid things about fashionable subjects? What he does is way more glamorous and takes way less actual, you know, effort than what I do.