Peter Drahos, John Braithwaite: Information Feudalism: Who Owns the Knowledge Economy? (2002)
Filed under book | Tags: · activism, business, copyright, economics, intellectual property, knowledge economy, law, piracy, politics, TRIPS, wto
New intellectual property regimes are entrenching new inequalities. Access to information is fundamental to the exercise of human rights and marketplace competition, but patents are being used to lock up vital educational, software, genetic and other information, creating a global property order dominated by a multinational elite. How did intellectual property rules become part of the World Trade Organization’s free trade agreements? How have these rules changed the knowledge game for international business? What are the consequences for the ownership of biotechnology and digital technology, and for all those who have to pay for what was once shared information? Based on extensive interviews with key players, this book tells the story of these profound transformations in information ownership. The authors argue that in the globalized information society, the rich have found new ways to rob the poor, and shows how intellectual property rights can be more democratically defined.
Publisher Earthscan, 2002
ISBN 1853839175, 9781853839177
253 pages
PDF (updated on 2012-6-13)
Comment (0)Janet Byrne (ed.): The Occupy Handbook (2012)
Filed under book | Tags: · activism, business, debt, economy, money, occupy movement, politics, protest
“The Occupy Handbook pairs the most widely read and closely followed of the world’s economic, business, and cultural writers with the most popular protest movement in American history since the sea change of the 1960s: Occupy Wall Street.
Sixty-seven writers analyze the movement’s deep-seated origins in questions that the country has sought too long to ignore. The writers include Paul Krugman, Robin Wells, Michael Lewis, Paul Volcker, John Cassidy, Emmanuel Saez, Peter Diamond, Robert Reich, Daron Acemoglu, James A. Robinson, Amy Goodman, Jeff Madrick, Pankaj Mishra, Barbara Ehrenreich, Scott Turow, Carmen M. Reinhart, Kenneth S. Rogoff, Bethany McLean, Brandon Adams, Robert Shiller, Raghuram Rajan, Gillian Tett, Martin Wolf, Arjun Appadurai, Tyler Cowen, Felix Salmon, David Cay Johnston, Chris Hedges, David Graeber, and many others.
The Occupy Handbook captures the Occupy Wall Street phenomenon in all its ragged glory, giving readers an on-the-scene feel for the movement as it unfolds while exploring the heady growth of the protests, considering the lasting changes wrought, and recommending reform. A handbook to the occupation, The Occupy Handbook is a talked-about source for understanding why 1% of the people in America take almost a quarter of the nation’s income.”
Guest Editor Robin Wells
Publisher Back Bay Books / Little, Brown and Company, April 2012
ISBN 0316220213, 9780316220217
560 pages
MOBI (updated on 2012-6-13)
Comment (0)Thomas Frank: The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism (1998)
Filed under book | Tags: · advertising, business, consumerism, counterculture
While the youth counterculture remains the most evocative and best-remembered symbol of the cultural ferment of the 1960s, the revolution that shook American business during those boom years has gone largely unremarked. In this fascinating and revealing study, Thomas Frank shows how the youthful revolutionaries were joined—and even anticipated — by such unlikely allies as the advertising industry and the men’s clothing business.
Publisher University of Chicago Press, 1998
ISBN 0226260127, 9780226260129
322 pages
PDF (updated on 2012-6-13)
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