Five Great Books on Copyright, Culture, and the Internet

It is beyond doubt that the Internet has completely changed the world of publishing. Books, music, animation, and art of all kinds is being created and distributed online in vast quantities each day. This explosion of virtual culture has upset copyright laws around the world. The extensive regulations, originally designed to protect artists and art-lovers alike, have often become a hindrance to the fullness of expression and sharing that the internet offers.

In the past ten to twenty years, many great minds have converged around reconciling the opposition between the seemingly opposing forces of copyright and internet distribution. Authors like Neil Gaiman and Cory Doctorow, as well as scholars like Richard Stallman, Lawrence Lessig and William Patry, have all weighed in on this issue. The number of books written on this topic is astronomical, so today we'd like to offer you five of the very best books on the nature of copyright in the digital age.