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➻ Cory Doctorow has laid out an interesting chronology of intellectual property rights since the first part of the 20th century for The Guardian's Comment Is Free interview series. Arguing that Every pirate wants to be an admiral, he tells a story that begins with sheet music composers and ends with the Internet about how elements of every innovation are seen as piracy until they become the mainstream, at which time they begin accusing the next generation of innovators of piracy. Stating at the beginning of the video that "The way to increase the health of the cultural realm is to allow more people to participate in it in more ways," he ends with anxiety that, for the first time in history, lawmakers may end up on the wrong side of the debate between the so-called "pirates" and supposed "admirals.
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Earlier this year, I passed on a copy of Content Rules to friend of the company and all-around awesome fellow Phil Gerbyshak. And, being the good friend that he is—and proving that content does, in fact, rule—he returned the favor by giving us a review of the book when he was done with it. But Phil didn't stop there, he went out and got an interview with the authors and gave that to us, too.
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Sometimes we need a little luck, to be in the right place at the right time, to meet the right people, and to make the best choices. We also need the skills and experience to back up what we can do with that luck. It's no use having it if we can't use it.
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We were overjoyed to have Peter Sims in town earlier this week for our LeaveSmarter* series. We first became aware of Peter when he coauthored True North with Bill George, which was a favorite of ours when it came out, and one of our bestsellers in 2007 and 2008 (and, coincidentally, Bill was in town to speak about True North at a previous LeaveSmarter event). So, we were really excited when we saw Mr.
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