'Common as Air offers a stirring defense of our cultural commons, that vast store of art and ideas we have both inherited from the past and continue to enrich in the present. Suspicious of the current idea that all creative work is "intellectual property", Lewis Hyde turns to America's founding fathers - men like Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson - in search of other ways to value the fruits of human wit and imagination. What he discovers a rich tradition in which knowledge was assumed to be a commonwealth, not a private preserve. The book brings the past to bear on present matters from the discussion on the Human Genome Project to Bob Dylan's musical roots, allowing readers to see beyond today's narrow debates over cultural ownership.' - excerpted from back cover.
Access level

Onsite

author
Location code
REF.HYL2
Language

English

Publication/Creation date

2010

No of pages

333

ISBN / ISSN

9780374532796

No of copies

1

Content type

monograph

Chapter headings

Defending the Cultural Commons

What is a Commons?

The Enclosure of Culture

Framing a Commonwealth

Benjamin Franklin, Founding Pirate

Liberty to Communicate

The Common Self

The Common Self Now

Enduring Commons

Afterwards

Common as Air: Revolution, Art, and Ownership
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Common as Air: Revolution, Art, and Ownership