Digital Barbarism

Written by Mark Helprin

Narrated by David Colacci

“A strange, wondrous, challenging, enriching book….Beautiful and powerful…you will not encounter another book like it.”

—National Review online

 

In Digital Barbarism, bestselling novelist Mark Helprin (Winter’s Tale, A Soldier of the Great War) offers a ringing Jeffersonian defense of private property in the age of digital culture, with its degradation of thought and language and collectivist bias against the rights of individual creators. A timely, cogent, and important attack on the popular Creative Commons movement, Digital Barbarism provides rational, witty, and supremely wise support for the individual voice and its hard-won legal protections.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperAudio
• Release date: Apr 28, 2009
• ISBN: 9780061780158

Mark Helprin

Mark Helprin was educated at Harvard, Princeton, and Oxford and served in the Israeli Army, Israeli Air Force, and British Merchant Navy. He is the author of, among other titles, A Dove of the East and Other Stories, Refiner’s Fire, Winter’s Tale, and A Soldier of the Great War. He lives in Virginia.

Reviews for Digital Barbarism

[paul_s-289480 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Man yells at cloud, in vain. Author keeps playing this role of old man who doesn't understand this new world but in the end he just comes off as ignorant. Assumes the moral high ground thinking it justifies being rude about everyone who disagrees with him.

[c_why · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I may not have finished this book - can one really injest 271 pages on justifying extended copyright?- if the writing itself weren't so brilliant & amusing. He can't pull me quite over onto his Right Wing thinking, but he's made a better case than I've ever heard before for it. And of course the very thought of abolishing copyright is unthinkable to me. How could anyone deem this to be fair?

[johngorski · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent! Probably the best piece of modern philosophy I've read recently.

[spacegod_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Elitism for all! A global homogeneous unified group of unique and rare individuals! Each member of the mob will be sure to get the biggest piece of cake and best seat at the movies.No matter which way you lean or sway, this deliciously intelligent rant on copyright law interspersed with wickedly stinging swats to the nearsighted selfish bottoms of a large group of sadly misinformed myopics who think everything from art to music to movies to books should come out of some sort of faucet for free, it's an always highly entertaining trove of droll witticisms and the exquisite wordwork is simply awe-inspiring in how quickly it makes my bemusement rise.Highly recommended, especially to those who will never read it.