Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #62401 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08-31
• Original language: German
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Synopsis
The Internet revolution has come. Some say it has gone. In The Future of Ideas, Lawrence Lessig explains how the revolution has produced a counterrevolution of potentially devastating power and effect. Creativity once flourished because the Net protected a commons on which widest range of innovators could experiment. But now, manipulating the law for their own purposes, corporations have established themselves as virtual gatekeepers of the Net while Congress, in the pockets of media magnates, has rewritten copyright and patent laws to stifle creativity and progress. Lessig weaves the history of technology and its relevant laws to make a lucid and accessible case to protect the sanctity of intellectual freedom. He shows how the door to a future of ideas is being shut just as technology is creating extraordinary possibilities that have implications for all of us. Vital, eloquent, judicious and forthright, The Future of Ideas is a call to arms that we can ill afford to ignore.

Customer Reviews

Do you really want know where technology is headed??
This book is nothing short of fantastic. It goes through the simple ideas of what people had to work with, to what they wanted to have and to where it lead them to.

The book will take you from the beginning of the 'Internet' (but not as we know it now), to how countries are using radio waves to transfer internet traffic at over 100 times the speed of normal DSL connections (....i know...amazing isnt it!!!!).

The book also goes through the current legal issues with p2p, piracy and the open source movement.

Every other page will guarantee you to say to yourself....'oh my god, thats amazing!'.

If you have an interest in technology or even interested in what the future may hold for us...this is a must read!

A seminal work
Lessig has a simple, clear style of writing. He explains complex issues well, simplifying but not over simplifying.

Both this book and his earlier book 'code' should be required reading for anyone interested in the impact technology has and will have on society. Technolgy does not exist in a vacuum, it can do good and bad, and Lessig articulates the threats that many of the freedoms we take for granted today face.

Lessig raises significant questions about the role of copyright and intellectual property generally in society. Has the Law swung too far in favour of media moguls and is now threatening creativity? In the rush to squash 'pirates' is the law undermining freedom of expression, innovation, creativity and fair use?

Lessig is a lawyer that understands technology and politics. He writes well too. A book that will be read in 100 years from now, assuming that we will be allowed to!