The Book that Should Redefine Copyright - Information Doesn't Want to Be Free by Cory Doctorow


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Information Doesn't Want to Be Free is a must-read. I mean it. Everyone over the age of 15 has to read it. At least, everyone over the age of 15 who also uses the Internet. This book is full of unburied truths that matter to every conscious citizen of the world, no matter how old they are, where they live or what they do. It reveals the dirty secrets of copyright policy—and the dangers hidden in proposed laws like PIPA and SOPA. It shows, clearly, that publishers and distributors are more interested in their own short-term success than in the good of creators, let alone the good of the entire world.

The book is separated into three sections, each titled after one of "Doctorow's Three Laws":

#1: 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.
Here, Doctorow writes about DRMs and other copyright-control techniques. He argues not exactly against copyright but against the current copyright laws. As he shows by example throughout the book, these techniques don't work on the Internet, and making them work will cost us the freedom and ease-of-use we currently enjoy online.

#2: Fame won't make you rich, but you can't get paid without it.
In this section he describes the ways creators can distribute their works and make their money in the Internet-age. It is different to be an artist today than it was a few decades ago. The technology is different. The options for making, publishing and distributing art and media are different. But the problem is that, instead of embracing this change and taking advantage of it, big companies are fighting against the Internet and lobbying to secure it against copyright-infringement.

#3: Information doesn't want to be free, people do.
Lastly, Doctorow digs deep into all the ways the Internet can be destroyed if big publishers and intermediaries are allowed to control copyright on the Internet. Then the dark truth begins to settle in, as section after section and chapter after chapter of build-up begins to weigh down on the reader. He shows plainly and completely all the many ways defending copyright—the way it is defined today—can and will backfire on us. But don't despair! There are solutions! And Doctorow brilliantly gives them only at the end, after his readers are desperate enough to fully understand and digest them.

Anyone who has read Information Doesn't Want to Be Free and doesn't act on it—doesn't take it seriously, doesn't do his or her best to keep the Internet free—will be guilty. As guilty as the big-name publishers, retailers, ISPs and policy-makers who are bent on saving themselves even if it means taking away the freedom of the Internet and, in consequence, the freedom of every human on Earth.

Learn more about Cory Doctorow at: craphound.com

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