Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In Pirates of the Digital Millennium, co-authors Rochester and Gantz tackle a subject with many far-reaching facets, and artfully illuminate the players, their motives, and their means.

The book starts with an excellent primer on intellectual property and copyright laws, which is vital for helping the lay reader understand the chapters ahead, and spells out some key underlying points (e.g. copyright laws have always been there to protect the publisher fat cats, not the artists, and most of the world's population lives without intellectual property laws!).

As the chapters go on we're taught about how companies lose money to pirating, who is doing the pirating (organized pirating rings, mostly in developing countries, are doing most of the damage), and what's being done to minimize it. The authors intelligently criticize the methods the music industry has used, like suing 12-year-olds, as well as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. They offer alternative strategies such as being one step ahead of the downloaders and creating pay-downloading sites that are better than the ones currently available for free.

The case is made that pirating really is ethically wrong, but it's also acknowledged that most people don't think it's wrong enough to keep them from doing it.

Since the data on digital piracy are sparse, the authors have commissioned some studies of their own, and used interviews with students, friends, and relatives to fill in the rest.

My one criticism of the book is that the authors seem to have a reverence for the software industry that they don't feel for its movie and music counterparts. An entire chapter is devoted to what goes into making a software package at Microsoft, and I got the feeling that the authors were really tickled to be there documenting the process. While it's repeatedly noted that CDs are overpriced at $20, there's no mention of the bloated price of software (how about $600 for Photoshop?).

In sum, the book educates the reader on the issues and leaves it up to him to decide whether or not to pirate media, and to do something about the silly laws that have been enacted to stop piracy (and that restrict our personal freedoms). The reader is left educated and empowered.

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?

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.

This book is a description of controlling a barrel of monkeys. The authors tackle the complex and almost untamable world of intellectual property piracy. To their credit this is a very accessible book, they left the detailed legal opinions on the cutting room floor. They also cover the subject in a rather even handed way. At first they were falling onto the side I fall onto, that any of this downloading etc is stealing plain and simple. They end up with a far more mellowed view and they almost convinced me along the way.

They give the reader a nice overview of what constitutes the new world of digital piracy. They cover everything from a teenager downloading a new song to Asian mafia types counterfeiting Microsoft code. It is very enlightening to say the least. They go on to cover topics such as how is software created, the current laws, and who and where is the major counterfeiting taking place. I really liked the chapter on the current ineffective and almost nonexistent law enforcement efforts. Arresting ten high school kids for downloading songs while millions of versions of counterfeit software packages come into the country each year highlights the joke of the law enforcement effort.

While I might not have come to completely agree with the authors suggested middle road approach, I did find the book very enjoyable. The book is easy to read and moves along at a nice pace. You learn a good deal from it also. If you are interested in the topic then this is a book that is well worth your time. Just make sure you get an authentic copy.

Gantz and Rochester have created a thorough investigation of the war over the ownership of intellectual property. They draw the reader in with common scenarios of digital piracy and then explain the history of copyright protection and the current debate over ownership of digital media. Moral and legal implications of illegal downloading are addressed as the authors reveal the extensive ripple effect downloading has on the world economy. The authors present complex theories and research in an accessible and entertaining manner. While their arguments may fall on deaf ears of hardcore downloaders, their theories are an essential read for anyone with an open mind to truly understand the impact of digital piracy.

"Pirates" is well writen, I would say exhaustively researched, and insightful. Considering the material, it is an "easy" read. It had me asking questons about my own stance on the limits of copyright laws etc. In 2008, it is still a current source. >Sam

Pirates delivers a strong opinion on a very controversial subject. There is so much left unanswered in terms of digital piracy that Gantz and Rochester approach without biasing. It is well-written and packed full of various forms of information and stands, from legal to moral to opinion.

"Digital piracy is an important issue which needs to be addressed in this age of technological revolution. This book by Gantz and Rochester highlights this point very well.You will learn everything about piracy and how it damages the world at large. I learnt a new word while reading this book "intellectual property", which is very important to the artists and needs to be protected.

This book covers it all. Every side, all its implications and the economics. It talks about copyright laws around the world.
Gantz and Rochester divide their analysis into ten easy-to-read chapters,with interesting quotes at the beginning of each chapter. It is explicitly written and has some diagramatic illustrations that make it interesting.
This book is a must for all those interested in knowing about digital piracy and its implications.

"Pirates" presents an honest and open look at not only the impact illegal downloading has on our society, but also how rampant it has become. The book highlights the moral dilemma for some (it seems it's not so much of a dilemma for most), and discuss what is taking place domestically and internationally to try and halt some of the copyright violations that are taking place. Authors Gantz and Rochester take us through the process of producing entertainment, specifically focusing on the cost breakdown, and discuss why CDs cost $17 when it only takes pennies to actually make a CD. I think they make solid arguments, specifically when discussing the cooperation that must take place between producers and consumers. Producers must begin to understand that consumers don't want a packaged bulk unit, they want a personalized playlist, CD and they want to listen/view their entertainment when they want! Companies such as iTunes have begun to show that people are willing to negotiate, but they are tired of paying the same old prices and getting the same old product.

Good easy read that puts the piracy in perspective. Very readable book which will hopefully give people a better understanding as to what is taking place on a global scale.

Gantz and Rochester's book, Pirates of the Digital Millennium was a good book. In their deep study of digital piracy, they provided a solid foundation for the reader to fully understand and create his own opinion. The information gathered from focus groups and the 1,000 people they either surveyed or talked to provided a wide range of ideas and levels of how people looked at digital piracy. It is evident that people of all ages engage in it and most feel it is ok as long as they are doing it for their personal use only. Downloading and copying have increased mainly due to the customers feeling the prices are too high. There was also a feeling that the artists are not being treated fairly by the production and distribution companies so we are not taking money from them.

I would recommend this book for those who would really like to understand all sides of this issue, including the legal and ethical problems.