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Cory Doctorow's linkblog

For a brief time this year, Amazon's bestselling "bitter lemon drink" was "Release Energy," which consisted of the harvested urine of Amazon delivery drivers, rebottled for sale by #CatfishUK prankster #OobahButler in a stunt for a new #Channel4 doc, "#TheGreatAmazonHeist":

channel4.com/programmes/the-gr

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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2023/10/20/rel

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20 Oct 2023 at 10:03 | Open on mamot.fr
28 comments
Cory Doctorow's linkblog

Collecting driver piss is surprisingly easy. Amazon, you see, puts its drivers on a quota that makes it impossible for them to drive safely, park conscientiously, or, indeed, fulfill their basic human biological needs. Amazon has long waged war on its employees' kidneys, marking down warehouse workers for "#TimeOffTask" when they visit the toilets.

As tales of drivers pissing - and shitting! - in their vans multiplied, Amazon took decisive action.

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20 Oct 2023 at 10:04 | Reply | Open on mamot.fr
Cory Doctorow's linkblog

The company enacted a strict zero tolerance policy for drivers returning to the depot with bottles of piss in their vans.

That's where Butler comes in: the road leading to Amazon delivery depots are lined with bottles of piss thrown out of delivery vans by drivers who don't want to lose their jobs, which made harvesting the raw material for "Release Energy" a straightforward matter.

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20 Oct 2023 at 10:04 | Reply | Open on mamot.fr
Cory Doctorow's linkblog

Butler was worried that he wouldn't be able to list his product on Amazon because he didn't have the requisite "food and drinks licensing" certificates, so he listed his drink in Amazon's refillable pump dispenser category. But Amazon's systems detected the mismatch and automatically shifted the product into the drinks section.

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20 Oct 2023 at 10:04 | Reply | Open on mamot.fr
Cory Doctorow's linkblog

Butler enlisted some confederates to place orders for his drink, and it quickly rocketed to the top of Amazon's listings for the category, which led to Amazon's recommendation engine pushing the item on people who weren't in on the gag. When these orders came in, Butler pulled the plug, but not before an Amazon rep telephoned him to pitch him turning packaging, shipping and fulfillment over to Amazon:

wired.com/story/amazon-let-its

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20 Oct 2023 at 10:04 | Reply | Open on mamot.fr
Cory Doctorow's linkblog

The Release Energy prank was just one stunt Butler pulled for his doc; he also went undercover at an Amazon warehouse, during a period when Amazon hired an extra 1,000 workers for its warehouses in #Coventry, UK, in a successful bid to dilute pro-#union sentiment in his workforce in advance of a key union vote:

jacobin.com/2023/10/the-great-

Butler's stint as an Amazon warehouse worker only lasted a couple of days, ending when Amazon recognized him and fired him.

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The Release Energy prank was just one stunt Butler pulled for his doc; he also went undercover at an Amazon warehouse, during a period when Amazon hired an extra 1,000 workers for its warehouses in #Coventry, UK, in a successful bid to dilute pro-#union sentiment in his workforce in advance of a key union vote:

20 Oct 2023 at 10:04 | Reply | Open on mamot.fr
Cory Doctorow's linkblog

The contrast between Amazon's ability to detect an undercover reporter and its *inability* to spot bottles of piss being marketed as bitter lemon energy drink says it all, really. Corporations like Amazon hire vast armies of "threat intelligence" creeps who LARP at being CIA superspies, subjecting employees and activists to intense and often illegal surveillance.

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20 Oct 2023 at 10:04 | Reply | Open on mamot.fr
Cory Doctorow's linkblog

But while Amazon's defensive might is laser-focused on the threat of labor organizers and documentarians, the company can't figure out that one of its bestselling products is bottles of its tormented drivers' own urine.

In the USA, the #FTC is suing Amazon for its monopolistic tactics, arguing that the company has found ways to raise prices and reduce quality by trapping manufacturers and sellers with its logistics operation.

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20 Oct 2023 at 10:05 | Reply | Open on mamot.fr
Cory Doctorow's linkblog

The company takes $0.45-$0.51 out of every dollar they earn and forcing them to raise prices at all retailers:

pluralistic.net/2023/04/25/gre

The Release Energy stunt shows where Amazon's priorities are. Not only did Release Energy get listed on Amazon without any quality checks, the company actually nudged it into a category where it was more likely to be consumed by a person.

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20 Oct 2023 at 10:05 | Reply | Open on mamot.fr
Cory Doctorow's linkblog

The only notice the company took of Release Energy was in its logistics and manufacturing department - the part of the business that extracts the monopoly rents at issue in the FTC case - which tracked Butler down in order to sell him these services.

The drivers whose piss Butler collected don't work directly for Amazon, they work for a #DeliveryServicePartner. These DSPs are victims of a pyramid scheme that Amazon set up.

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20 Oct 2023 at 10:05 | Reply | Open on mamot.fr
Cory Doctorow's linkblog

DSP operators lease vans and pay to have them skinned in Amazon livery and studded with Amazon sensors. They take out long-term leases on depots, and hire drivers who dress in Amazon uniforms. Their drivers are minutely monitored by Amazon, down to the movements of their *eyeballs*.

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20 Oct 2023 at 10:05 | Reply | Open on mamot.fr
Cory Doctorow's linkblog

But none of this is "Amazon" - it's all run by an "entrepreneur," whom Amazon can cut loose without notice, leaving them with unfairly terminated employees, outstanding workers' comp claims, a fleet of Amazon-skinned vehicles and unbreakable facilities leases:

pluralistic.net/2022/04/17/rev

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20 Oct 2023 at 10:06 | Reply | Open on mamot.fr
Cory Doctorow's linkblog

Speaking to #Wired, Amazon denied that it forces its drivers to piss in bottles, but Butler clearly catches a DSP dispatcher telling drivers "If you pee in a bottle and leave it [in the vehicle], you will get a point for that" - that is, the part you get punished for isn't the peeing, it's the leaving.

Amazon's defense against the FTC is that it spares no effort to keep its marketplace safe.

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20 Oct 2023 at 10:06 | Reply | Open on mamot.fr
Cory Doctorow's linkblog

As Amazon spokesperson #JamesDrummond says, they use "industry-leading tools to prevent genuinely unsafe products being listed." But the only industry-leading tools in evidence are tools to bust unions and screw suppliers.

In her landmark *Yale Law Review* paper, #AmazonsAntitrustParadox, FTC Chair #LinaKhan makes a brilliant argument that Amazon's alleged benefits to "consumers" are temporary at best, illusory at worst:

yalelawjournal.org/note/amazon

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20 Oct 2023 at 10:06 | Reply | Open on mamot.fr
Cory Doctorow's linkblog

In Butler's documentary, Khan's hypothesis is thoroughly validated: here's a company extracting hundreds of billions from merchants who raise prices to compensate, and those monopoly rents are "invested" in union-busting and countermeasures against investigative journalists, while the tools to keep you from accidentally getting a bottle of piss in the mail are laughably primitive.

Truly, Amazon is the apex predator of the platform era:

pluralistic.net/ApexPredator

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20 Oct 2023 at 10:06 | Reply | Open on mamot.fr
Cory Doctorow's linkblog

There are just three days left to back the #Kickstarter campaign for the audiobook of my next novel, *The Lost Cause*. These kickstarters are how I pay my bills, which lets me publish my free essays nearly every day. If you enjoy my work, please consider backing!

lost-cause.org

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20 Oct 2023 at 10:06 | Reply | Open on mamot.fr
Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK

@pluralistic LB: whilst the practice of yeeting piss bottles out of vehicles (usually into the grass verges around laybys on the fast highways such as the A14 and A12 in my area) is already widespread amongst drivers of larger lorries in the UK (due to longer distances driven and lack of service stations) it is *not* as usual amongst drivers of smaller delivery vans, confirming the Amazon drivers are being put under greater pressure than others doing the same type of job..

20 Oct 2023 at 10:50 | Reply | Open on social.tchncs.de
Rupert Reynolds

@pluralistic When I first saw this message, I truly thought you were just taking the (Mickey Bliss) (pun intended. Sorry.)

20 Oct 2023 at 10:59 | Reply | Open on hachyderm.io
Wayne is easily amused
Rupert Reynolds

@dontreportme @pluralistic Not sure what you mean.

I see it as high octane trolling of Amazon, in support of workers' rights. Works for me :-)

20 Oct 2023 at 12:27 | Reply | Open on hachyderm.io
The Other Brook
Rupert Reynolds

@theotherbrook @dontreportme OIC!
Yes, but these days if I use it as intended ('mickey', 'loaf', 'barney') half the people don't understand :-)

20 Oct 2023 at 12:50 | Reply | Open on hachyderm.io
The Other Brook

@RupertReynolds @dontreportme I'm American and the best use case I've found for the internet is searching for the meaning of rhyming slang terms when I come across them. But then your joke also hinges on the difference between "taking a piss" and "taking the piss" which most of us wouldn't get either.

20 Oct 2023 at 12:59 | Reply | Open on sunny.garden
Misha Van Mollusq 🏳️‍⚧️ ♀
Brian Hawthorne

@pluralistic @hacks4pancakes That cover photo is a good remake of Serrano’s Piss Christ. Maybe call it “Piss Prime”?

[ Edited to replace incorrect attribution to Mapplethorpe. Thanks to all who pointed out my error! ]

20 Oct 2023 at 14:29 | Reply | Open on infosec.exchange
yes, it's me, liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦
EvilNegativeInfluencer 🏳️‍⚧️ 🏳️‍🌈
@bhawthorne@infosec.exchange @pluralistic@mamot.fr @hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange Just FYI, Andres Serrano is the artist that made the Piss Christ work.
20 Oct 2023 at 15:24 | Reply | Open on tech.lgbt
Brian Hawthorne

@PixlShft Whoops! Well it was over 35 years ago. I’m surprised I remembered the name of the work. I’ll fix.

20 Oct 2023 at 15:27 | Reply | Open on infosec.exchange
EvilNegativeInfluencer 🏳️‍⚧️ 🏳️‍🌈
@bhawthorne@infosec.exchange did I just do what is known as "taking the piss"? 😉
20 Oct 2023 at 15:31 | Reply | Open on tech.lgbt
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