Information doesn't want to be free : laws for the Internet age

Format:

Book

Title:

Information doesn't want to be free : laws for the Internet age

Other title(s):

Information does not want to be free

Author:

Doctorow, Cory author

ISBN:

9781940450285

Publication:

San Francisco : McSweeney's, [2014]

Physical Description:

xxv, 162 pages ; 22 cm

Contents:

Forewords / Neil Gaiman, Amanda Palmer -- Introduction : Detente ; What makes money? ; Don't quit your day job, really -- Doctorow's first law: Any time someone puts a lock on something that belongs to you and won't give you the key, that lock isn't there for your benefit : Anti-circumvention explained ; Is this copyright protection? ; So is this copy protection? ; Digital locks always break ; Understanding general-purpose computers ; Rootkits everywhere ; Appliances ; Proto-appliances: the inkjet wars ; Worse than nothing -- Doctorow's second law: Fame won't make you rich, but you can't get paid without it : Good at spreading copies, good at spreading fame ; An audience machine ; Getting people to care about your work ; Content isn't king ; How do I get people to pay me? ; Does this mean you should ditch your investor and go indie? ; Love ; The new intermediaries ; Intermediary liability ; Notice and takedown ; So what's next? ; More intermediary liability, fewer checks and balances ; Disorganized channels are good for creators ; Freedom can be expensive, but censorship costs us the world -- Doctorow's third law: information doesn't want to be free, people do : What the copyfight is about ; Two kinds of regulation ; Anti-tank mines and land mines ; Who's talking? ; Censorship doesn't solve problems ; The problem with cutting off access ; Copyright and human rights ; A world made of computers ; Renewability: digital locks' sinister future ; A world of control and surveillance ; What copyright means in the information age ; Copyright: fit for purpose ; Term extension versus samplers ; What works? ; Copyright's not dead ; Every pirate wants to be an admiral ; It's different this time ; All revolutions are bloody ; Cathedrals versus the Protestant reformation ; Three-hundred-million-dollar movies ; What is copyright for? -- Epilogue : What does the future hold?

Summary:

Information Doesn't Want to Be Free takes on the state of copyright and creative success in the digital age. Can small artists still thrive in the Internet era? Can giant record labels avoid alienating their audiences? This is a book about the pitfalls and the opportunities that creative industries (and individuals) are confronting today -- about how the old models have failed or found new footing, and about what might soon replace them. Information Doesn't Want to Be Free offers a guide to the ways creativity and the Internet interact today, and to what might be coming next.

Subject(s):

Authors and publishers -- United States -- Popular works.

Digital rights management -- Popular works.

Geographic Term:

United States.

Genre:

Popular works.

Added Author:

Palmer, Amanda, 1976-

Gaiman, Neil

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... McMinnville Public Library	346.0482 Doctorow	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Monmouth Public Library	343.73 Doctorow, C. 2014	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

In sharply argued, fast-moving chapters, Cory Doctorow's Information Doesn't Want to Be Free takes on the state of copyright and creative success in the digital age. Can small artists still thrive in the Internet era? Can giant record labels avoid alienating their audiences? This is a book about the pitfalls and the opportunities that creative industries (and individuals) are confronting today -- about how the old models have failed or found new footing, and about what might soon replace them. An essential read for anyone with a stake in the future of the arts, Information Doesn't Want to Be Free offers a vivid guide to the ways creativity and the Internet interact today, and to what might be coming next.

Author Notes

Writer and activist Cory Doctorow was born in Toronto, Canada on July 17, 1971. In 1999 he co-founded a free software company called Opencola and served as Canadian Regional Director of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. For four years he worked as European Affairs Coordinator for the Electronic Frontier Foundation and in 2007 won its Pioneer Award. His first novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, won a Locus Award for Best First Novel. His short story collection A Place So Foreign and Eight More won a Sunburst Award, and his bestselling novel Little Brother received the 2009 Prometheus Award, a Sunburst Award, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. Doctorow also writes nonfiction books and articles, and he co-edits the blog Boing Boing.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

The Internet has expanded and cluttered the debate over intellectual property with technical terms and special interests, but Doctorow (Rapture of the Nerds), co-editor of the popular blog Boing Boing and a contributor to Publishers Weekly, breaks down some of the most fundamental concepts at work into plain language. The book is organized around Doctorow's Three Laws, which consider DRM (digital rights management, which Doctorow simplifies to "digital locks"), piracy versus obscurity, and the way copyright ought to work. He excels at translating complex issues into pithy, digestible phrases, and challenges readers to rethink the idea of copyright and who it is meant serve. Doctorow argues that, rather than doing away with copyright as we know it, we need to rethink the way that it is enforced. He deftly explains how an open Internet directly affects freedom of speech and freedom of the press, and why censorship doesn't solve problems. Equal parts manifesto and field guide, Doctorow's primer for artists and creators delivers a healthy dose of clarity to the debate. Agent: Russell Galen, Scovil Galen Ghosh Literary Agency. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Review

In his best-selling novel Ready Player One,Ernest Cline predicted that decades from now, Doctorow (Homeland, 2013,etc.) should share the presidency of the Internet with actor Wil Wheaton.Consider this manifesto to be Doctorow's qualifications for the job.The author provides a guide to the operation of the Internetthat not only makes sense, but is also written for general readers. Usingstraightforward language and clear analogies, Doctorow breaks down the complexissues and tangled arguments surrounding technology, commerce, copyright,intellectual property, crowd funding, privacy and valuenot to mention thetricky situation of becoming "Internet Famous." Following a characteristicallythoughtful introduction by novelist Neil Gaiman, rock star Amanda Palmer offersa blunt summary of today's world: "We are a new generation of artists, makers,supporters, and consumers who believe that the old system through which weexchanged content and money is dead. Not dying: dead." So the primary thesis ofthe book becomes a question of, where do we go from here? Identifying the Web'sconstituents as creators, investors, intermediaries and audiences is just thefirst smart move. Doctorow also files his forthright, tactically savvyarguments under three "laws," the most important of which has been well-broadcast:"Any time someone puts a lock on something that belongs to you and won't giveyou the key, that lock isn't there for your benefit." These aren't thewild-eyed proclamations that arose from the Occupy movement or the hysteriathat seems to surround Edward Snowden, whom Doctorow touches on only brieflyhere. Instead, the author advocates for a liberalized system of copyright lawsthat finally admits that the Internet, for all its virtues and diversepurposes, is nothing but one great big copy machine, and it's not going away.Doctorow has spoken and written on these issues many timesbefore but never quite so persuasively. Required reading for creators makingtheir ways through the new world. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Library Journal Review

Starred Review. Doctorow (Pirate Cinema; Little Brother; Rapture of the Nerds) mentions so many past careers in this title that he's hard to describe. Suffice to say that his history makes him an authority on the creation, sale, distribution, and consumption of various kinds of artistic media. Here the author distills the benefit of his experiences into three laws, to wit: digital locks are not for the benefit of the creators of the material they "protect"; "Fame Won't Make You Rich, But You Can't Get Paid Without It"; and "Information Doesn't Want to Be Free, People Do." Much of the material will make readers more conscious of facts they already had some awareness of: that record companies rip off artists, for example. Doctorow will also make all but the most savvy consumers aware of outrages they had no idea about-for example, that those companies deduct from artists' royalties for "breakage" (physical damages caused by shipping), even when they sell digital music. VERDICT Each of the miniessays and lengthy sidebars Doctorow offers in support of his laws is an education in itself. The entries are perfect for standalone examinations in library science classrooms, where students will take away an important lesson: copyright is broken, given that computers work by creating copies (opening a web page, for example, creates a copy of it on the user's hard drive). Mainly, though, his nonstop barrage of hard-won information-age wisdom is for everyone who consumes copyrighted material today-which is everyone.-Henrietta Verma, Library Journal (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.