Techdirt Book Club - Techdirt’s Cwf + RtB.
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Techdirt Book Club
What you get:
Signed Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars by William Patry
Signed The Public Domain by James Boyle
Signed Against Intellectual Monopoly by David Levine & Michele Boldrin
Signed The Gridlock Economy by Michael Heller
Signed Approaching Infinity by Mike Masnick
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The Details:
Don’t believe the hype that people don’t read books any more! We get requests all the time from people for interesting and
useful books to read that help provide more detail into what we talk about around here. We often recommend some great
books, but we’re thrilled to offer this opportunity here. We approached the authors of four of the most important (we believe)
books in the last few years to see if they wanted to take part in this offering as well. The five authors (one is a co-authored
book) have all agreed to let us sell signed copies of their books as a package. And, on top of that we’re throwing in a signed
copy of Mike’s "Approaching Infinity" series, which we’ve now turned into a book as well. This is a not to be missed
opportunity.
If you already have these books, feel free to buy this package for a friend... or, say, your elected official. Use this page to find
the mailing address for your favorite politician. For your selected politician, we’ll be sure to send out the package with a note
explaining why these books are all worthwhile reads before they pass any further poorly thought out legislation.
Please note: Due to the logistics of getting all of the signed copies *and* the fact that Patry’s book doesn’t even get
published until September, this package will not ship until the Fall.
Shipped to U.S. addresses only. We apologize to our international fans, but right now, we can only ship goods within the
United States — but, we are trying to figure this out as soon as possible. If you are interested, please contact us and let us
know where you are located, and we'll let you know when we have it figured out.
We are only accepting a limited number of orders, so don’t wait, or you might miss out.
The books in the collection are:
Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars
Signed by the author, William Patry
Patry, long established as one of the foremost experts on copyright law has written an outstanding text
that discusses how copyright law has been twisted and abused by corporate interests who don’t use it for
its intended purpose (to promote the progress of creative works) but as a tool to prop up an outdated
business model. On top of this, he explores the misleading and inflammatory language used by those
seeking to abuse copyright law in this manner. Highly engaging and a must read for anyone who’s worried
about the state of copyright today.
The Public Domain
Signed by the author, James Boyle
Law professor James Boyle has been one of the foremost critics of the undue expansion of copyright law
over the years, fighting against things like the DMCA and the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act. Over the
years, he’s noticed a troubling trend among some to question why the public domain is even needed — so
he wrote an entire book to explain why. It’s filled with story after story that highlights both the
importance of the public domain and how overly aggressive copyright laws have held back the public
domain and the creativity that it previously allowed. As a highlight, don’t miss the incredible chapter on
the birth of soul music by Ray Charles. If today’s copyright regime had been in force at the time, we might
not have had soul music at all. Think of all the great music we may be missing today thanks to current
copyright laws.
Against Intellectual Monopoly
Signed by the authors, David Levine and Michele Boldrin
Levine and Boldrin are two well-known economists who began investigating the impacts of intellectual
property, and were eventually quite disturbed by what they found. That is, they could find no evidence
that either copyrights or patents actually achieved their stated intention of "promoting the progress."
Instead, they found a lot of evidence that the opposite occurred — and that copyright and patent law
served to hinder the progress and slow down its pace. Chock full of examples and citations to important
studies, this book is a must read for anyone trying to understand the state of today’s intellectual
property law and how closely it lives up to its stated purpose.
The Gridlock Economy
Signed by the author, Michael Heller
An excellent addition to the literature on property law and the economics of property. Heller recognized
what he refers to as "the tragedy of the anti-commons" when too many property rights get in the way of
the efficient allocation of resources, and notes how this has come into play on things like patents and
21/07/2009 10:34 a.m.
Techdirt Book Club - Techdirt’s Cwf + RtB. http://www.techdirt.com/rtb.php?tid=500

broadcast spectrum. If you’re trying to understand the economics of intellectual property, especially if
you’re a strong believer in property rights (as we are) this is an excellent book to understand where
property rights can go too far.

Approaching Infinity
Signed by the author, Michael Masnick

Adapted from a series of posts on Techdirt about the economics of abundance and how to embrace it, this
short book is a useful read for anyone struggling to understand digital business models today. Getting
beyond the legal issues or economic studies, Mike tries to explain what you can do today to embrace the
digital reality and use it to your advantage, rather than worrying about the impact of things like "piracy."

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