The Piracy Crusade

This is a book that needed to be written and Sinnreich is the perfect author for it. There are critiques and histories of piracy, and there is at least one state of the music industry book, but this book makes a very different case by critically interrogating the rhetoric and effects of both piracy and anti-piracy efforts.--Nancy Baym, author of Personal Connections in the Digital Age Sinnreich provides a sophisticated economic and political analysis of the evolution of the anti-piracy agenda, identifies major stakeholders, and does so with brisk and reader-friendly prose.--Patricia Aufderheide, coauthor of Reclaiming Fair Use: How to Put Balance Back in Copyright A fascinating takedown of the corporate anti-music-piracy movement, packed with history, interviews, and great pop-cultural references, from REAL pirates (the swashbuckling kind) to Harry Smith to 'The Pink Panther Returns' to Amanda Palmer. My favorite phrase is 'cyborgian sexual innuendos.'--Steve Knopper, author of Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Business in the Digital Age, and Rolling Stone contributing editor Thorough and tremendously thought-provoking, even if you already follow these issues closely.--Techdirt Reading List Sinnreich has collected disparate sources and considerable empirical evidence between two covers thus providing a good primer on music piracy and anti-piracy efforts. . . . a valuable addition to the study of digital piracy distinguished by a focus on the music industry's anti-piracy efforts.--Information, Communication, & Society The Piracy Crusade is a rhetorical tour de force against the over-the-top claims made by big media in favor of extending existing copyright law. Sinnreich's book will be of interest to anyone concerned about the fate of the entire ecosystem of reading--libraries and library researchers can learn much from the way the music industry has framed its intellectual property.--Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy

Aram Sinnreich is assistant professor of journalism and media studies, Rutgers University, USA and author of Mashed Up: Music, Technology, and the Rise of Configurable Culture (University of Massachusetts Press, 2010).