Pirates of the Digital Millennium
How the Intellectual Property Wars Damage Our Personal
Freedoms, Our Jobs, and the World Economy

By John Gantz and Jack B. Rochester
Financial Times Prentice Hall

The war over intellectual property is being fought everywhere on earth. It's a battle between media conglomerates and computer-wielding teenagers, between billion-dollar technology companies and billion-dollar content companies, between artists and artists, nations and nations. This is not only a top technology story, but a cultural, economic, and entertainment story.

Now, IDC's Chief Research Officer, John Gantz, and Jack B. Rochester, authors of the best-selling book of the 1980s, The Naked Computer, take on the subject from every side: culture, ethics, law, business, law enforcement, and even geopolitics.

Starting with ground-breaking research from IDC on software piracy around the globe (see IDC Inside), and fresh research conducted by IDC for the book on consumer attitudes about music and movie piracy, Gantz and Rochester cover the story from the streets of Bangkok to the halls of Congress, from secret duplicating factories in Paraguay to college dorm rooms. They examine the past, present and future of copyright infringement and enforcement, addressing questions like:

• Do strict copyright laws protect creativity – or stifle it?
• Does digital piracy only hurt U.S. media conglomerates – or small-time artists and authors in local markets?
• Is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act a much needed update to laws that lag technology – or a bludgeon in the hands of media companies that can't come to terms with the future?
• Are all 70 million-plus music, movie, and software downloaders unethical thieves? – or is there something wrong with the current system that needs to be fixed?
• Will suing customers, lobbying lawmakers, and sending out notice-and-takedown letters be sufficient to staunch piracy – or are their other solutions?
• Are you or your kids committing piracy – and if so, should you do something about it?

Chock full of references, sidebars, tables and graphs, fresh research, and un-biased but lively and entertaining narrative (see Did You Know), Pirates of the Digital Millennium is the book-of-record on the subject of digital piracy. If you are in the high tech or media industry, if you are involved with intellectual property issues, or if you are just a business person or parent concerned about the issue, this may be the most important book you can buy on the subject.

Lester Thurow, Professor of Economics and Business at MIT, former dean of the MIT Sloan School of Business, and author of 13 books, including The Zero Sum Society and the latest, Fortune Favors the Bold

"Capitalism does not work unless everyone knows who has the right to sell what and those rights are enforced. As we move into the digital age nothing is more important in understanding the issues about digital piracy and what to do about them. The place to start gaining that understanding is with Pirates of the Digital Millennium."

Paul Saffo Director, Institute of the Future

"Pirates takes us on a roller coaster ride from 18th century London bookshops to the 21st century pirate bazaars of Moscow, Beijing and New York City. This is the best book yet on the intellectual property wars, and a damn good read besides!"

Patrick McGovern, Chairman and Founder, IDG

"In Pirates of the Digital Millennium, Gantz and Rochester zero in on the critical issue of protection for intellectual property in a way that everyone - parents, business people, media executives, and artists - can understand. We have entered the digital millennium, and this book looks at not only how we got there but, more importantly, where we are going when it comes to digital piracy. It's entertaining and serious at the same time, offering a 360-degree view of the issue with fresh research and compelling insights!"

Brad Smith, Microsoft Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary

"Software piracy remains a major problem around the globe, negating literally thousands of person-years of intellectual effort. This book provides a thorough and detailed analysis of the economic damage that piracy causes both to local economies and the technology industry. Gantz and Rochester describe how technology, society, and globalization have evolved to make piracy easier than ever and highlight the challenges faced by industries trying to adapt to this change and enforcement organizations trying to stem the tide. This is an important read for media executives, college students, parents, intellectual property lawyers, and, of course, would-be digital pirates."

Bob Metcalf, Ethernet inventor, 3Com founder, former columnist for Infoworld, and Polaris Partner

"We'll take another few decades fully working out the ethics and economics of sharing copied bits, but Gantz and Rochester have gone deep and given us good working first draft. Time to reconsider the Ten Commandments now that stone tablets have been replaced by KaZaA."

Geoffrey Moore, Author of Crossing the Chasm, Inside the Tornado, and Living on the Fault Line, founder of The Chasm Group, and Managing Director of TCG Advisors

"Pirates, like any predator, are agents of Darwinian evolution, forcing adaptations and driving next-generation innovations. Gantz and Rochester do a masterful job of analyzing this process and the impact piracy is having at the intersection of business, technology, and society. The moral? What doesn't kill us will make us stronger."

Jonathan Zittrain, Assistant Professor of Law, Harvard Law School, Co-Founder, Berkman Center for Internet & Society

"The authors have taken a welcome step back from the copyfights that have consumed the digerati at the turn of the millennium, placing them into a historical, social, and ethical context. This book provides a roadmap for a detente that could end the arms race and allow new forms of creativity and intellectual productivity that we know can be unleashed, if only the right legal and economic knots can be untied."

Tracy Kidder, Pulitzer and National Book Award prize winner, writer for The Atlantic, and author of House, Old Friends, Among Schoolchildren, Home Town, Mountains Beyond Mountains and the international best-seller, Soul of a New Machine

"The pirates in this book include both teenagers working in their bedrooms and corporate executives in the offices, hijacking the gift of digital technology. This is a well-researched and engaging work on a subject of great importance now and for the future."

Lars S. Smith, Assistant Professor of Law, Trademarks and Intellectual Property, Louis D. Brandeis School of Law, University of Louisville

"Much has been written about the legal theories surrounding technology and piracy. What has been lacking is the empirical research to explain the practical impacts of piracy and the legal efforts to stamp it out. Pirates of the Digital Millennium does just that, and more. John and Jack have taken a problem that's been with us for 500 years and put it into a 21st century context. Technology advances have always affected the rules for copyright protection -- and the ease with which those rules can be circumvented. John and Jack show that downloading pirated music from a P2P network, justified on the grounds that "monetary interests precede art" in the recording industry, potentially stunts the development of diverse music and movie industries around the globe. At the same time, the legal response is heavy handed, denying access for all to digital works to prevent the illegal behavior by some, making criminals out of our children for culturally accepted behavior. An important work for legal, business and sociological scholars alike, not to mention parents, teachers, and kids."

Hugo Burnham, teacher, New England Institute of Art and founding member of English post-punk band Gang of Four, whose 1980 debut album "Entertainment" was named one of the 500 greatest albums of all-time by Rolling Stone magazine in 2004.

"I ate, drank, lived, and loved the music business for 25 years. Today, I see a business that has done its best to kill itself - first creatively, and now technologically. The music business, big and small, could have owned the downloading business, were it not for the collective of aging Luddites who run things, who are holding on desperately to a system that has sustained them for so long that their drive to innovate, educate, and entertain has ossified. There is so much music - new and old - out there that people either have no access to or have to jump through increasingly costly hoops to find. As a former artist who owns copyrighted music, I am convinced people will pay for it -- if it is priced right and so easily available in this digital age. Jack and John's book is essential reading for anyone who wants or needs the music industry to have any sort of viable future. In these pages readers will find clear information that allows them to make the distinction between the facts and the overwhelming fiction on this great subject, to make informed decisions. The reader will find not just the seeds of change, but the leaves (and stems) as well."