Hailed by Bruce Sterling as "a
political activist, gizmo freak, junk collector, programmer,
entrepreneur, and all-around Renaissance geek," the Internet's
favorite high-tech culture maven is celebrated with the first
collection of his infamous articles, essays, and polemics.
Irreverently championing free speech and universal access to
information-even if it''s just a free download of the newest
Britney Spears MP3-he leads off with a mutinous talk given at
Microsoft on digital rights management, insisting that they stop
treating their customers as criminals. Readers will discover how
America chose Happy Meal toys over copyright, why Facebook is
taking a faceplant, how the Internet is basically just a giant
Xerox machine, why Wikipedia is a poor cousin of The
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, and how to enjoy free
e-books. Practicing what he preaches, all of the author''s books,
including this one, are simultaneously released in print and on the
Internet under Creative Commons licenses that encourage their reuse
and sharing. He argues persuasively that this practice has
considerably increased his sales by enlisting readers to promote
his work. Accessible to geeks and nontechies alike, this is a
timely collection from an author who effortlessly surfs the
zeitgeist while always generating his own wave.