Two bits : the cultural significance of free software / Christopher M. Kelty.

Durham : Duke University Press, 2008.

HM851 .K45 2008

9780822342427 (cloth ; alk. paper)
0822342421 (cloth ; alk. paper)
9780822342649 (pbk. ; alk. paper)
0822342642 (pbk. ; alk. paper)

xvi, 378 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

(OCoLC)183914703

In Two Bits, Christopher M. Kelty investigates the history and cultural significance of Free Software, revealing the people and practices that have transformed not only software but also music, film, science, and education. Free Software is a set of practices devoted to the collaborative creation of software source code that is made openly and freely available through an unconventional use of copyright law. Kelty explains how these specific practices have reoriented the relations of power around the creation, dissemination, and authorization of all kinds of knowledge. He also makes an important contribution to discussions of public spheres and social imaginaries by demonstrating how Free Software is a "recursive public"--A public organized around the ability to build, modify, and maintain the very infrastructure that gives it life in the first place.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 349-366) and index.

Online version: Kelty, Christopher M., 1972- Two bits. Durham : Duke University Press, 2008 (OCoLC)608884983

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Cultural significance of free software

Gift of Prof. Ronald Mann