People's Computer Company (PCC) was an organization, a newsletter (the People's Computer Company Newsletter) and, later, a quasiperiodical called the Dragonsmoke. PCC was founded and produced by Dennis Allison, Bob Albrecht and George Firedrake in Menlo Park, California in the early 1970s.
The first newsletter, published in October 1972,[1] announced itself with the following introduction:
"Computers are mostly used against people instead of for people; used to control people instead of to free them; Time to change all that - we need a... Peoples Computer Company."
It was published bimonthly.[2] The name was chosen in reference to Janis Joplin’s rock group Big Brother and the Holding Company.[1][ambiguous] The newsletter ceased publication in 1981.[2]