Pirates of the Digital Millennium : How the Intellectual Property Wars Damage Our Personal Freedoms, Our Jobs, and the World Economy

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Summary: The Internet is big Brother.....
Review: This book warns us of the dangers and the traps that hackers will use to steal music,money, information, almost anything as long as the stupid cable companies develop fast internet access. After reading this, you will want to cancel that AOL account and give your computer away.

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Summary: Everything you wanted to know about Digital Piracy
Review: I didn't know much about the subject except what I got from the newspapers and hear from my kids. This book put it into perspective for me. I have a better handle on what my kids are up to when they download and what to do about it. I was also surprised that the book had so many interesting facts and tidbits. Now I wish the music and movie industries would grow up and offer us what we can now get on Kazaa.

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Summary: Well written, balanced perspective
Review: The digital rights management problem is complex. Consumers have a right to own what they buy, and fairly use it. And commercial companies and artists have a right to make money on products that consumers are willing to pay for. Finding the right balance is complex, and that's what this book sets out to do.

It's a relatively quick read at about three hundred pages. If you read just the first portion of the book you would believe that the author is firmly in league with the companies. He lays out in grim detail the cost of piracy at an economic level. In the later chapters he does a good job representing the consumer perspective and advocating for our rights.

He finishes up with a well reasoned proposal for striking a balance between these two warring factions. Companies want to make money. People want to own stuff. Cant' we all just get a long?

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Summary: Great book. Comprehensive & Illuminating
Review: While most of us have probably engaged in some form of digital piracy - be it mp3 downloading or CD burning/sharing - I think few of us actually understand the legal or moral ramifications surrounding these activities. In 'Pirates of the Digital Millenium', Gantz and Rochester offer a balanced and revealing perspective on all of these issues and encourage a rethinking of the problems surrounding digital piracy and copyright.

'Pirates of the Digital Millenium' starts off by discussing the history of piracy (of written media) and copyright law. It then proceeds to analyze the recent explosion of digital piracy from the multiple perspectives, including those of the music industry, the artists, and the consumers themselves. I was surprised to learn about the striking similarities between instances of piracy in the 1800s and in the current day - how divides exist between artists/authors, publishers and consumers, and how copyright laws cater only to the economic needs of the industry.

While highlighting historical similarities, Gantz and Rochester emphasize that digital piracy is a new phenomenon that will require radically new mechanisms of control; as demonstrated by the recent actions of the RIAA against music downloaders, existing methods of law-enforcement do not work against digital piracy. At the same time, Gantz and Rochester calls on the digital media industry to stop demonizing consumers - college students in particular - and start finding new ways to distribute their media in a way that addresses people's needs.

This book is a great read. It is well written, rich with interesting information and persuasive in its arguments for better solutions to the problems at hand.