• Lethem, Jonathan. ``The ecstasy of influence: a plagiarism.'' Harper's magazine, February 2007, pages 59-71.
• Lessig, Lawrence. Free culture: how big media uses technology and the law to lock down culture and control creativity. New York: The Penguin Press, 2004. ISBN 1-59420-006-8. PDF version
• Bollier, David. Viral spiral: how the commoners built a digital republic of their own New York: The New Press, 2008. ISBN 978-1-59558-396-3. PDF version.
August 23. Introductions; basic ideas of the course; preparation for registration.
Reading: Lethem, "The ecstasy of influence"; Grinnell College, "Academic honesty," sections 1-3 (pages 1-17).August 28. Plagiarism, copyright violation, and academic honesty.
Reading: Lessig, Free culture, chapters 1 and 2 (pages 21-47).September 1. Creating, copying, and adapting cultural works.
Reading: Lessig, Free culture, chapters 3 and 4 (pages 48-61).September 3. New media, new kinds of copyright violation.
Reading: Lessig, Free culture, chapter 5 (pages 62-79).September 8. File sharing: motives and consequences. Writing assignment #1 due.
Reading: Lessig, Free culture, chapters 6-9 (pages 83-115).September 10. Fair use.
Reading: Lessig, Free culture, chapter 10 (pages 116-173).September 15. Intellectual property.
September 17. Intellectual property (continued). Writing assignment #2 due.
Reading: Lessig, Free culture, chapters 11-15 (pages 175-256).September 22. Balancing rights: theory and practice.
Reading: Lessig, Free culture, conclusion and afterword (pages 257-306); Grinnell College, "Academic honesty," sections 4-6 (pages 19-37).September 24. Freedom and law. Academic honesty exercise due.
Reading: Your choice from the optional readings.September 29. Open discussion.
Reading: Your choice from the optional readings.October 1. Open discussion. Writing assignment #3 due.
Reading: Your choice from the optional readings.October 6. Open discussion.
Reading: Bollier, Viral spiral, introduction and chapter 1 (pages 1-41).October 8. Free software and the free software movement.
Reading: Bollier, Viral spiral, chapters 2 and 3 (pages 42-89).October 13. The public domain and the free culture movement.
Reading: Bollier, Viral spiral, chapters 4-6 (pages 91-167).October 15. Creative Commons. Writing assignment #4 due.
Reading: Bollier, Viral spiral, chapters 7-9 (pages 168-225).October 27. Globalization and generalization of the free culture movement.
Reading: Bollier, Viral spiral, chapters 10 and 11 (pages 227-280).October 29. Open business models. Scientific research and freedom.
Reading: Bollier, Viral spiral, chapter 12 (pages 281-293).November 3. Free education. The role of the instructor; the role of the liberal-arts college.
Reading: Bollier, Viral spiral, conclusion (pages 294-310).November 5. Free citizenship; power and authority.
Reading: Your choice from the optional readings.November 10. Open discussion.
Reading: Your choice from the optional readings. I'd recommend Abelson et al.'s Blown to bits, Zittrain's The future of the Internet, Levine et al.'s The cluetrain manifesto, and Benkler's The wealth of networks as carrying forward the themes discussed in the second part of the course. In case you want to follow along with my own reading, I plan to study Boyle's The public domain as my contribution to the discussion.November 12. Library research; discussion of the library research exercises.
Reading: Your choice from the optional readings.November 17. Open discussion. Outline of writing assignment #5 due.
Reading: Your choice from the optional readings.November 19. Open discussion. Draft of writing assignment #5 due.
Reading: Your choice from the optional readings; I recommend listening to Eben Moglen's talk ``The future of the digital commons.''November 24. The morality and politics of free culture.
Reading: (none).December 1 and 3, and 8. Oral presentations.
Reading: (none).December 10. Conclusions. Writing assignment #5 due.
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created August 23, 2009
last revised November 19, 2009