Justin Peters - The Idealist: Aaron Swartz and the Rise of Free Culture on the Internet

Tuesday, January 26, 2016 - 7:00pm to 8:00pm

In his first book, Peters, a founding editor of Polite, and currently a contributing editor at The Columbia Journalism Review and correspondent for Slate, looks at the state of the digital commons. Putting today’s free culture movement into historical perspective, he explores the history of copyright, notions of the public domain, and their evolution to a “copyleft” and open access. The heart of the book, however, is the life and death of Aaron Swartz (1986-2013), a “data moralist” and hacktivist who fought for open information; instrumental to the creation of Reddit and Creative Commons, Swartz was indicted for wire fraud after illegally downloading academic articles—federally-funded research that Swartz and others have maintained should not be considered private property.

Peters will be in conversation with Josh Levin, executive editor of Slate.

5015 Connecticut Ave NW
Washington, DC 20008
Non Fiction
The Idealist: Aaron Swartz and the Rise of Free Culture on the Internet By Justin Peters Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9781476767727
Availability: Special Order—Subject to Availability
Published: Scribner - January 12th, 2016

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