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

"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

This book is absolutely wonderful! I enjoyed it very much. It really explains how different agencies, such as the RIAA, MPAA, and BSA are taking action against intellectual property violators. It's kinda scary the power these agencies have. It really shows how much power these agencies have over certain things and those powers could possibly violate our constitutional rights. The book gives different reasons why people pirate and how to resolve the issue as best as we can. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in intellectual property copyright laws.

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.

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.