Viral spiral : how the commoners built a digital republic of their own : Bollier, David : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Includes bibliographical references and index

pt. I. Harbingers of the sharing economy -- In the beginning was free software -- The discovery of the public domain -- When Larry Lessig met Eric Eldred -- pt. II. The rise of free culture -- Inventing the creative commons -- Navigating the great value shift -- Creators take charge -- The machine and the movement -- Free culture goes global -- The many faces of the commons -- pt. III. A viral spiral of new commons -- The new open business models -- Science as a commons -- Open education and learning -- Conclusion: The digital republic and the future of democratic culture

A narrative history of the emergence of electronic "free culture" explains how strict intellectual property rights, hierarchies of credentialed experts, and other forms of centralized control are being challenged and reshaped by the world of digital media, in an account that includes coverage of such figures as hacker Richard Stallman and copyright scholar Lawrence Lessig

viii, 344 pages ; 22 cm