From the Internet to the iPod, technologies are transforming our society and empowering us as speakers, citizens, creators, and consumers. When our freedoms in the networked world come under attack, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is the first line of defense. EFF broke new ground when it was founded in 1990 — well before the Internet was on most people's radar — and continues to confront cutting-edge issues defending free speech, privacy, innovation, and consumer rights today. From the beginning, EFF has championed the public interest in every critical battle affecting digital rights.
Blending the expertise of lawyers, policy analysts, activists, and technologists, EFF achieves significant victories on behalf of consumers and the general public. EFF fights for freedom primarily in the courts, bringing and defending lawsuits even when that means taking on the US government or large corporations. By mobilizing more than 61,000 concerned citizens through our Action Center, EFF beats back bad legislation. In addition to advising policymakers, EFF educates the press and public.
Loreley MacTavish is a staunch supporter of human rights and privacy. She is an intensely private individual. She only agreed to allow us to run her piece in this book on the condition that we not divulge her identity. It is sad that such a remarkable person feels compelled to hide behind a curtain such as this, but these are the times we live in.
The United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945 after the Second World War by 51 countries committed to maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations and promoting social progress, better living standards and human rights. Their website is http://un.org
Rick Falkvinge is the founder of the first Pirate Party and is a political evangelist, traveling around Europe and the world to talk and write about ideas of a sensible information policy. He is also a net activist, building tunnels and tools whenever and wherever. His website is http://falkvinge.net He may also be found on Twitter at @Falkvinge.
Cory Doctorow ( http://craphound.com ) is a science fiction author, activist, journalist, and blogger – the co-editor of Boing Boing ( http://boingboing.net ) and the author of Tor Teens/HarperCollins UK novels like FOR THE WIN and the bestselling LITTLE BROTHER. He is the former European director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and co-founded the UK Open Rights Group. Born in Toronto, Canada, he now lives in London.
Lawrence Lessig is a professor at Harvard Law School and is a director of the Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics. The author of The Future of Ideas, Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace, Free Culture, Remix, and Republic, Lost, he is the chair of the Creative Commons project (http://creativecommons.org). He studied at the University of Pennsylvania, Cambridge University, and Yale Law School, and he clerked for Judge Richard Posner of the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. His web site is http://lessig.org
Brad Hall is the vice-chairman of the Florida Pirate Party and spokesman for the United States Pirate Party. He has been involved in Pirate Politics since 2009.
Nina Paley is the creator of the animated musical feature film Sita Sings the Blues, which has screened in over 150 film festivals and won over 35 international awards including the Annecy Grand Crystal, The IFFLA Grand Jury Prize, and a Gotham Award. Her adventures in our broken copyright system led her to copyLeft her film, and join QuestionCopyright.org as Artist-in-Residence. Prior to becoming an animator Nina was a syndicated cartoonist; she is now re-releasing all her old comics under a Creative Commons Share-Alike license. A 2006 Guggenheim Fellow, Nina is currently producing a series of animated shorts about intellectual freedom called Minute Memes.
http://www.sitasingstheblues.com/
Further Reading
No one becomes an expert in a field by reading just one book, no matter how good it is. Below is a (non-exhaustive) list of books that we feel you would enjoy if you enjoyed this one. Also, some of the below listed books may be either freely available from the author's website, or be released under a Creative Commons license. Many of the CC licensed books may be found at the United States Pirate Party Library, found online at http://wiki.pirate.is/index.php?title=Library. We are always looking for more books to read.
These books cover a range of topics, some of which were not covered in this book.
Access Denied edited by Ronald Deibert, John Palfrey, Rafal Rohozinski, and Jonathan Zittrain
Against Intellectual Monopoly by Michele Boldrin and David K. Levine
Against Intellectual Property by N. Stephan Kinsella
Arts, Inc. by Bill Ivey
Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace by Lawrence Lessig
Common As Air by Lewis Hyde
Content by Cory Doctorow
Context by Cory Doctorow
Digitize This Book by Gary Hall
Edited Clean Version by Raiford Guins
Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy by Noam Chomsky
Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
Free by Chris Anderson
Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig
Freedom of Expression by Kembew McLeod
From Shakespeare to DJ Danger Mouse: A Quick Look at Copyright and User Creativity in the Digital Age by Urs Gasser and Silke Ernst
Gridlock Economy by Michael Heller
Jokapiraatinoikeus (Every Pirate's Right) (Finnish) by Ahto Apajalahti and Kaj Sotala
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
Macrowikinomics by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams
Mashed Up by Aram Sinnreich
Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars by William Patry
Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic (American Empire Project) by Chalmers Johnson
No Law by David L. Lange and H. Jefferson Powell
Piracy by Adrian Johns
Privacy and Free Speech: It's Good for Business by the ACLU of North Carolina
Reality Hunger by David Shields
Rebooting America: Ideas for Redesigning American Democracy for the Internet Age by the Personal Democracy Press
Remix by Lawrence Lessig
Republic, Lost by Lawrence Lessig
Super Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
The Law of Cyberspace: An Invitation to the Table of Negotiations by Ahmad Kamal
The Future of Ideas by Lawrence Lessig
The Long Tail by Chris Anderson
The Pirate's Dilemma by Matt Mason
The Return of Depression Economics by Paul Krugman
The Shallows by Nicholas Carr
The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman
Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom by Yochai Benkler
Wikinomics by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams
What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly