The wealth of networks : how social production transforms markets and freedom /

There have been many debates about the optimal lives of patents and copyrights as protection for innovators. How long should an individual or corporation be allowed to benefit from these governmental forms of protection? Benkler (Yale Law School), however, poses an even larger and more important question about governmental protection of ideas. He argues that in a digital world free exchanges of information are easier than ever, and there is a growing trend toward producing information goods without price signals or managerial commands. One of the best examples of this phenomenon is Wikipedia, for which contributors receive no compensation. According to Benkler, one of the key ingredients necessary for this sharing is communications capacity (and the Internet certainly provides that). But could copyright laws enforced by the government put an end to productive forms of open collaboration or "commons-based peer production"? Benkler's answer would be yes. He is not opposed to all copyrights or patents, but he is acutely sensitive to their downsides, which have been routinely overlooked. This provocative book, which argues for the right to produce distributed collaborative projects, will be relevant to a broad range of readers interested in the legal, political, and cultural ramifications of the networked information economy. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduate through professional collections. B. P. Keating University of Notre Dame

In this thick academic book, Yale law professor Benkler offers a comprehensive catalog of flashpoints in the conflict between old and new information creators. In Benkler's view, the new "networked information economy" allows individuals and groups to be more productive than profit-seeking ventures. New types of collaboration, such as Wikipedia or SETI@Home, "offer defined improvements in autonomy, democratic discourse, cultural creation, and justice"-as long as government regulation aimed at protecting old-school information monoliths (such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act) doesn't succeed. Non-market innovation is a good thing in itself and doesn't even have to threaten entrenched interests, Benkler argues; rather, "social production" can use resources that the industrial information economy leaves behind. Where Benkler excels is in bringing together disparate strands of the new information economy, from the democratization of the newsmedia via blogs to the online effort publicizing weaknesses in Diebold voting machines. Though Benkler doesn't really present any new ideas here, and sometimes draws simplistic distinctions, his defense of the Internet's power to enrich people's lives is often stirring. (May) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.