The book reviewed here--published in early 1999--provides a chilling, well-integrated overview of the devastating consequences of treating everything imagineable as intellectual property owned by private entities--almost always giant corporations. Throughout history, free public knowledge has been the lifeblood of human existence--and progress. Would we ever have started using the alphabet if we had to pay every time we used a letter? What if the inventor of zero charged a fee for using it?
Original: The Hostile Takeover of the Future