Review: Piracy: The Intellectual Property Wars from Gutenberg to Gates

I have recently been exploring Adrian Johns's book Piracy: The Intellectual Property Wars from Gutenberg to Gates. Although I have yet to finish this lengthy book (600 + pages), I have found it to be a fascinating look at how current piracy and intellectual property problems are in fact a product of the last three hundred years of printing culture. Johns argues that we must look at the developments of the past to be able to understand what must be done (or not done) to address the problem of piracy.
At the end of his book, he also addresses whether in fact we are going to see the end of intellectual property with the expansion of the digital age.


The book is worth checking out for anyone who is interested in the current issues surrounding intellectual property and would like to better understand the historical context. I've included my review of the text from Goodreads below:
 

Piracy: The Intellectual Property Wars from Gutenberg to Gates by Adrian Johns
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Although this is a lengthy look at both the legal and historical aspects of piracy in our current age, this is an excellent way to put our day’s current piracy issues in their appropriate historical context. Johns takes the current issues and problems of piracy and copyright and demonstrates that in fact this problem is centuries old. Through examining intellectual property as it relates to print throughout the last three hundred years, the author raises interesting questions about how to address the problems of piracy today.

This book is clearly well researched, with a painstaking eye to documenting every relevant detail of history and current events. At times this is overwhelming, but it is to be expected in a 600 (plus) page book. But what really brought the subject matter alive for me, and kept me interested despite the legal complexities, was the vivid and approachable style of the text. Although there are a lot of details to take in, what I’ve explore of the text brilliantly incorporates history with the present, through relevant fact and anecdotes, to create an informative yet interesting read.

This book is a valuable resource for anyone who wants to better understand intellectual policy and how the concept has developed throughout history, and it raises questions we each must address in our increasingly digital world.


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