Techdirt Reading List: Free Books From Verso (Mostly)

from the and-some-good-ones dept

Most Thursday's, we post book recommendations with links to purchase the books through Amazon (where a little cut of the purchase price goes to us). We've received a ton of feedback that people like those recommendations (and seeing how many books you guys have bought via that, suggests it's true!). We had another such book lined up for today, but we're going to put that aside as we saw the news this morning that publisher Verso Books, which has published a number of excellent books (including ones we've recommended in the past), is doing a special one day (today!) offer for a bunch of free ebooks, many of which may interest folks here -- though there are a few caveats which we'll get to.

The books include two that we've recommended before: Gabriella Coleman's excellent book about Anonymous, Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy and the collected writings of Aaron Swartz entitled The Boy Who Could Change The World. Now there's a big caveat on the Swartz book: as Verso notes, it does not hold the rights to that book in North America, so it's only available to those outside of the US (or someone using a geographically promiscuous VPN, I imagine). Now, quite obviously, Aaron Swartz would probably be first in line to argue that this kind of geoblocking is ridiculous and worthy of scorn. In fact, from its tweets, it appears that Verso also recognizes this. But, it's not exactly in Verso's control. Though perhaps the company could have reached out to The New Press, who published the book in the US to work out some sort of co-promotion.

The second caveat is that... Verso appears to be overwhelmed. There have been lots of complaints that after "purchasing" the ebooks people are not receiving their download links -- and I can confirm that. I tried direct download links and the "email me a link" option, and neither seemed to work. However, the company says it's working on it, and as long as the books are listed in your "library" in their system, then you'll be able to access them in the future.

And, of course, even if you're in North America, all of the other books are available for free, including Coleman's. The other books look pretty good as well. There's The Wikileaks Files with an intro by Julian Assange, Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work by Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams, Revolution in the Age of Social Media: The Egyptian Popular Insurrection and the Internet by Linda Herrera and In The Flow by Boris Groys.

The one other issue that some people may take at least some offense to is Verso's decision to entitle the blog post about this whole thing Psst! Downloading Isn't Stealing [for today], with at least one person on Twitter pointing out that this title at least suggests that Verso hasn't read (or hasn't understood) Swartz's writings. Verso responded noting that it had, and given my own dealings with Verso, I believe that's the case. Though, it does seem a little wrong no matter what that the collection of Swartz's writings doesn't appear to be available anywhere as a Creative Commons download -- given that Swartz himself was instrumental in the founding of Creative Commons and many of the writings in the book were things that Swartz himself posted for free online on his blog.

As for the title, which perhaps a little annoying, it's Verso doing a play on words of an Aaron Swartz blog post entitled "Counterpoint: Downloading Isn't Stealing," which Verso also reprinted on their page. For folks who are extra sensitive to the claims some make that "copying is stealing," you can see why Verso's title may rub some the wrong way, but it does appear to be them just having some fun with the phrase. And, either way, go check out these books for free today...

Filed Under: aaron swartz, books, free, gabriella coleman, reading list, techdirt reading list
Companies: verso

Techdirt Reading List: Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous

from the read-it-today dept

We're back again with another in our weekly reading list posts of books we think our community will find interesting and thought provoking. Once again, buying the book via the Amazon links in this story also help support Techdirt.

This week we've got a book we've talked about in the past: Gabriella Coleman's wonderful Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous. Gabriella was a guest on our podcast, joining us for two episodes earlier this spring, where we talked about this book quite a bit (including having her read some excerpts). The first was the "many faces of Anonymous," which looked at how difficult it is for some to understand Anonymous, because it doesn't fit neatly into any sort of standard classification. Gabriella, of course, spent a ton of time getting to know many people within Anonymous, and that's why her book gives such a nuanced and detailed picture of what Anonymous is about and how it's changed over time.

The second podcast focused on one of those key changes, how Anonymous went from doing stuff just for the "lulz" to actual activism and what that shift has meant for Anonymous. The entire book is a worthwhile read, if you want to get beyond the standard mainstream media narratives of Anonymous, and to understand how Anonymous not only functions but how it's had a real impact (and not necessarily in the way that most people think). I'd argue that if you're at all interested in online culture, this is a must-read, or you'll be missing some key elements in your understanding.

Filed Under: anonymous, gabriella coleman

The Weapons Of The Geek: Putting Anonymous Into Context

from the politics-and-power...-technology-and-anonymity dept

Professor Gabriella Coleman, who has studied hacking culture, Anonymous and a variety of related topics for years, recently published a new paper, entitled Anonymous in Context: The Politics and Power behind the Mask. It's a quick, but very worthwhile read. If you've followed Anonymous for years, you'll probably already be aware of much of what's in the paper, but it does a really nice job running through much of the history of Anonymous, the misconceptions about Anonymous, and frequent (failed) attempts by the press to accurately describe Anonymous. It also does a really nice job discussing the concept of the "weapons of the geek," and how Anonymous is really a fascinating demonstration of how technology is allowing a group of technologically savvy folks to get involved in activism and protest in ways that simply weren't possible before. If you're interested in this stuff (and you should be), go check it out.

Filed Under: activism, anonymous, expression, gabriella coleman, geeks, protest