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ABOUT THE LECTURE:
Peer-to-peer networks have existed as long as gossip and word-of-mouth
advertising--but with the rise of electronic communication, they
are suddenly coming into their own. and they are drawing the outlines
of a battle for information that will determine much of the culture
and politics of our century, from file-sharing websites like Gnutella
to private edits of Star Wars to the neo-Nazi concept of 'leaderless
resistance.' On one side, trying to maintain control of information--and
profits--are legislators, judges, cabinet officers, entertainment
conglomerates, and multinational corporations. On the other side,
trying to liberate information, are educators, computer programmers,
civil libertarians, artists, consumers, and dissidents under all
sorts of regimes. Vaidhyanathan draws upon examples ranging from
ancient religions to open-source software to show how this battle
will be one of the defining fault lines of twenty-first-century
civilization. His radical and original explanation of the future
of information is a warning shot that will mobilize anarchists
and controllers alike.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Siva Vaidhyanathan, a cultural historian and media scholar, is
the author of Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual
Property and How it Threatens Creativity (New York University
Press, 2001) and The Anarchist in the Library: How Peer-to-Peer
Networks are Transforming Politics, Culture, and Information (Basic
Books, 2003). Vaidhyanathan has written for many periodicals,
including The Dallas Morning News, The Chronicle of Higher Education,
The New York Times Magazine, MSNBC.COM, Salon.com, and The Nation.
He is a frequent contributor on media and cultural issues, and
his research has been profiled by programs on National Public
Radio, CNN, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, International
Herald-Tribune Television, Pacifica Radio, Voice of America, and
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. After five years as a professional
journalist, Vaidhyanathan earned a Ph.D. in American Studies from
the University of Texas at Austin. Vaidhyanathan has taught at
the University of Texas, Wesleyan University, and the University
of Wisconsin at Madison. He is currently an assistant professor
of Culture and Communication at New York University.
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