Duke University Press Log

Copying is Not Theft

The most recent issue of Radical History Review, "New Approaches to Enclosures," features an interview with filmmaker, cartoonist, and cultural commons activist Nina Paley.  Paley, who has garnered attention for her video "Copying is Not Theft," which invites the public to use the Internet to contribute their own versions of the film's soundtrack, discusses the challenges of doing creative work under the present U.S. copyright regime and her efforts to counter it. Read the interview here.

LA Times on the Death of the VHS Tape

The Los Angeles Times reports that the lone remaining producer of VHS tapes is ceasing production of the now obsolete analog technology. The tapes have lingered in dollar stores and other downmarket venues, but now those stores are beginning to sell DVDs, soon to be another obsolete format. Believe it or not, there is a nostalgia for the tapes, which empowered consumers to tape TV shows and share movies in the 1980s. In the forthcoming book Inherent Vice: Bootleg Histories of Videotape and Copyright (May 2009), Lucas Hilderbrand argues that videotape not only radically changed how audiences accessed the content they wanted and loved, but also altered how they watched it. He looks at bootleg movies like Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story and argues that YouTube has important roots in the VHS movement. Check it out this Spring!

Christopher Kelty Interviewed in Technology Review

MIT's Technology Review has a piece on Christopher Kelty and his book Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software. "Two Bits 'is a chance to articulate how the culture of free software is significant,' Kelty says. 'Not just the mechanics of how does it work, but what does it mean?' He says people could use his book to apply practices common to free software elsewhere." Two Bits is available free online as well as in our handsome print edition.

Kelty in Times Higher Education Supplement

Christopher M. Kelty's Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software is the "Book of the Week" in the Times Higher Education Supplement. John Gilbey writes, "Just occasionally, you come across a book that reflects part of your own life and experience in a way that makes you stop and say: 'Yes, that is the way I remember it happening.' This is one such book." He concludes, "This is a very significant book that succeeds in capturing the essence of a period of huge change in the way we look at intellectual property and commons. The word revolution is overused, but I'd suggest that it might be appropriate to apply it in this instance. More than this, Kelty's solidly focused text offers an effective roadmap for the deeply convoluted raw material that defines this period - providing a detailed, and well crafted, reference for future investigators."
An interview with Kelty is also posted over at Geert Lovink's Net Critique blog.

McLemee on Kelty's Two Bits

Scott McLemee writes about Christopher M. Kelty's Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software today in Inside Higher Ed. McLemee thinks the book might help nerds talk to geeks. He adds, "I think Kelty’s book deserves a wide readership — especially among nerds trying to make sense of the past decade, let alone to prepare for the next one."

New Yorker Praises Kelty Cover

Writing in the New Yorker blog The Book Bench, Andrea Walker praises Cherie Westmoreland's cover design for Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software: "Kudos to the designers of this book which gave me pause. What is that image on the cover, so strangely antiquated and modern at the same time? Why is the woman on the bottom covering her eyes? What are those wires it appears she’s about to fly into? Turns out it’s a painting from the French symbolist painter Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, about the invention of the telegraph." For more on the cover of the book, you can read Kelty's own comments.

HASTAC on Kelty

Cathy Davidson blogs about the role HASTAC has played in our publication of Christopher M. Kelty's Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software. Thanks, HASTAC!

Join the Two Bits Book Club

Five bloggers in Boston have started an online book club to discuss Chris Kelty's new book Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software, just published this month. Alex Leavitt features a short video of Kelty introducing his book.