The Idealist

November 9, 2015
Slate correspondent Peters expands on his 2013 article profiling the late “hacktivist” and Internet personality Aaron Swartz (1986–2013), using this book to explore the constant struggle between control and liberation of the flow of information. He traces the creation and evolution of copyright law from the 18th century into the present, looking at both those who championed the cause and those who fought against it. As the thread reaches the modern day with the development of the Internet, the rise of electronic documents, and the creation of Project Gutenberg (a repository for public-domain text files), Peters transitions into the tragic story of Swartz. The talented young activist’s obsession with freeing information led him to download vast numbers of academic articles, a crusade ultimately leading to his arrest, prosecution, and suicide. This “narrative introduction to the story of free culture in America” presents a thought-provoking discussion on the roles of copyright, digital piracy, and emerging technology. As Peters shows by juxtaposing Swartz’s story with that of information control in general, “Information wants to be expensive. Information wants to be free. Today... paradox seems more relevant and more frustrating than ever.” Agent: Todd Shuster, Zachary Shuster Harmsworth Literary Agency.

November 15, 2015

In 2013, Aaron Swartz took his own life while under indictment by the U.S. government for downloading large amounts of licensed material from the JSTOR database. Swartz was 26 years old when he died yet had already worked on significant projects including Creative Commons, the semantic web, Reddit, and SOPA/PIPA protests. He saw the Internet as a tool for bettering humanity by opening access to knowledge. His life and death have come to represent larger struggles over access to information--namely, should public access be guaranteed to all or should corporations profit by limiting access? Peters (Slate correspondent; contributing editor, Columbia Journalism Review) uses Swartz's story to explore the larger history of copyright, academic publishing, and digital technologies. Copyright is a complex issue, but the author makes it far more approachable by weaving in the accounts of key players such as dictionary creator Noah Webster, who sought copyright protections in the 19th century, and Michael Hart, who conceptualized Project Gutenberg in the late 20th century. Overall, this book invites readers to consider how society values access to information, as suggested by Swartz's life. VERDICT Peters's title is recommended for academic audiences and lay readers--especially for those with an interest in the intersection between culture and digital technology.--Talea Anderson, College Place, WA

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