I was all set to write a review about a different book today and then Josh posted this which led me to Doc Searls site, whom I'm a regular to and I got to thinking about Larry Lessig's writings (cited at Doc's). Here's the crux. Copyright law has been extended and extended to the point where anything written today claimed or not is protected for life + 50-75 years or 95 years depending upon you situation.
This is a technical law book that illustrates nicely how "content" is getting confused with "property". Intellectual property does need to be protected in the form of copyrights and patents. But currently in America when a patent runs out (approx. 14 years) other companies and people can start competing with the original company in production of the same product. I've already stated how copyright protection has been lengthened over the years. It is no longer meant just to protect a single author. Lessig emphasizes this point nicely with a lot of examples of everyday people, who 'got busted' and subsequently financially ruined, for sharing songs with friends or creating networks for original filesharing, that were turned into copyrighted filesharing.
The argument made in this book is bigger than that though. It is about the ability to create and share your own work, without corporate approval. The ability to do what you want with certain properties that you have bought or been given. Do you own your Cd's. Can the FCC control this blog as a media? Lots of questions come form the idea of Intellectual property.
If you are interested at all in the phenomenons of P2P or generally concerned about the governments involvement with the future of the net. This is a good book for you.