Adrian Johns Livres

The book delves into the vibrant world of 1960s pirate radio stations along Britain's coast, highlighting the fierce competition among free-market entrepreneurs. A pivotal moment occurs when pirate operator Oliver Smedley fatally shoots his rival, Reg Calvert, escalating tensions in this unconventional broadcasting landscape. The narrative explores the clash of ambition, innovation, and the darker side of the quest for independence in media.

"The Science of Reading is the surprisingly unsung history of scientific research into reading practices, from the origin of the field in German psychophysics to its current extension into digital and online areas. Starting in the late nineteenth century and continuing through to the present, the practice of reading has been made the subject of extensive scientific investigation, and historian Adrian Johns here explores the questions that motivated this research program, the technologies that enabled it, the ambitions that drove it, and the consequences it produced as it was carried out. Its champions' ambitions extended far beyond the laboratory: psychological experimenters were keen to point out that everything in a modern society depended on the population's ability to read, and to read well. These scientists sought to reconstruct mass education, and the childhood experiences of millions of Americans were reshaped according to their maxims. They sought to transform mass capitalism, and, following a national campaign to boost "reading efficiency," the workplace experiences of millions of American adults shifted as well. They sought to place the defense of the nation on a secure footing, and so servicemen and spies were subjected to their science, from the heart of the Pentagon to the decks of aircraft carriers in the Pacific. By the end of the twentieth century, Johns argues, it would not be an exaggeration to say that modernity itself had been substantially shaped by the conscious application of the scientific study of reading"-- Provided by publisher

Since the rise of Napster and other file-sharing services in its wake, most of us have assumed that intellectual piracy is a product of the digital age and that it threatens creative expression as never before. The Motion Picture Association of America, for instance, claimed that in 2005 the film industry lost $2.3 billion in revenue to piracy online. But here Adrian Johns shows that piracy has a much longer and more vital history than we have realized—one that has been largely forgotten and is little understood. Piracy explores the intellectual property wars from the advent of print culture in the fifteenth century to the reign of the Internet in the twenty-first. Brimming with broader implications for today’s debates over open access, fair use, free culture, and the like, Johns’s book ultimately argues that piracy has always stood at the center of our attempts to reconcile creativity and commerce—and that piracy has been an engine of social, technological, and intellectual innovations as often as it has been their adversary. From Cervantes to Sonny Bono, from Maria Callas to Microsoft, from Grub Street to Google, no chapter in the story of piracy evades Johns’s graceful analysis in what will be the definitive history of the subject for years to come.

What is the difference between thongs and flip flops? To a Brit, flip flops are worn in the summer to the beach. To an Australian, thongs are all-purpose, all-terrain footwear worn 365 days a year. If they could climb mountains, fight fires in their thongs, they would give it a damn good go. True stories you just never hear! Covering over thirty years from my service in the British Army to migrating to Australia and becoming an underground coal mine worker. 'You're not all coming home speech' prior to Gulf War 2. OCD is rife in the British Army. The clown on parade and meeting a soldier called 'Git'. The 'Duaringa Incident'; two idiots stuck on a railway line. Bolts not boats! Smelly passengers, workmates and sanitary issues within a coal mine. My turbulent relationship with the Australian wildlife, especially Skippy; once love, but now so bitterly estranged. How did it go so wrong?

Je stahování z internetu něco nového? Jak stará jsou autorská práva? Od doby, kdy se začal šířit Napster a jiné služby na sdílení souborů, se většina z nás smířila s faktem, že duševní pirátství je produktem digitální éry. Například společnost The Motion Picture Association of America uvádí, že v roce 2005 přišel filmový průmysl kvůli internetovému pirátství o 2,3 miliardy dolarů. Adrian Johns však ukazuje, že pirátství má mnohem delší a bohatší historii, než jsme si mysleli. Historii dlouho zapomenutou a málo pochopenou. Johns popisuje boje o duševní vlastnictví od dob prvních tiskařských technologií v šestnáctém století až do doby internetu ve století jednadvacátém. Jeho kniha překypuje detaily a širšími souvislostmi, které přispívají k současným debatám na téma volného přístupu k informacím a jejich užívání, svobody kultury atp. Pirátství podle autora vždy stálo v centru našich pokusů nastolit rovnováhu mezi kreativitou a obchodem a bývalo jak stimulem sociálních, technologických a duševních inovací, tak i jejich nepřítelem. Od Cervantese po Steva Wozniaka, od Marie Callasové k Windows, od nechvalně proslulé ulice Grub Street ke Googlu — žádná kapitola dějin pirátství neunikne Johnsově analýze v knize, jež se bezesporu stane základním pramenem k tomuto tématu na mnoho dalších let.