Reliving the fight to stop the Stop Online Piracy Act and other recent assaults on the open Internet

by Ken

From Demand Progress ("Demand Progress mobilizes the public to challenge entrenched power and promote freedom") comes book-publication news that includes a "pay what you wish" option for the e-book edition. OR Books has published Demand Progress's Hacking Poliltics, its book "about the SOPA [the Stop Online Piracy Act, the Hollywood heavy hitters' wish-list bill] fight and other recent internet freedom organizing" -- documenting how an improbable coalition of activists spanning the political spectrum from left to right "teamed up [as the publisher's blurb puts it] to defeat SOPA and save the Internet." From the OR Books catalog:

Hacking Politics

How geeks, progressives, the Tea Party, gamers, anarchists and suits teamed up to defeat SOPA and save the Internet

Edited by DAVID MOON, PATRICK RUFFINI, and DAVID SEGAL

Hacking Politics is a firsthand account of how a ragtag band of activists and technologists overcame a $90 million lobbying machine to defeat the most serious threat to Internet freedom in memory. The book is a revealing look at how Washington works today -- and how citizens successfully fought back.

Written by the core Internet figures -- video gamers, Tea Partiers, tech titans, lefty activists and ordinary Americans among them -- who defeated a pair of special interest bills called SOPA ("Stop Online Piracy Act") and PIPA ("Protect IP Act"), Hacking Politics provides the first detailed account of the glorious, grand chaos that led to the demise of that legislation and helped foster an Internet-based network of amateur activists.

Included are more than thirty original contributions from across the political spectrum, featuring writing by Internet freedom activist Aaron Swartz; Lawrence Lessig of Harvard Law School; novelist Cory Doctorow; Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA.); Jamie Laurie (of the alt-rock/hip-hop group The Flobots); Ron Paul; Mike Masnick, CEO and founder of Techdirt; Kim Dotcom, internet entrepreneur; Tiffiniy Cheng, co-founder and co-director of Fight for the Future; Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit; Nicole Powers of Suicide Girls; Josh Levy, Internet Campaign Director at Free Press, and many more.

Publication May 2013 • 316 pages • ebook with more than 100 supplementary photographs
Paperback ISBN 978-1-939293-04-6 • ebook ISBN 978-1-939293-06-0

The feature that especially caught my attention is that, at least for "a limited time," OR Books is offering the e-book edition of Hacking Politics on a "pay what you wish" basis (with a "suggested price" of $10). Or you can buy the paperback edition for $25.

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