Free Ride by Robert Levine, Castells and Media by Philip N Howard and Famous Past Lives by Steve Burgess

Free Ride By Robert Levine (Bodley Head, £ 18.99)
The pseudo-gurus of "free" Internet culture are often not as strong as in this contentious and well-researched book by a business reporter refutes "How the Internet is destroying the culture of business, and how the culture of business can be back fighting ". To the idea, for example, that writers can write books and giving away their earnings power of hefty fees to subsidize lectures, Levine replied mischievously: "This works best for authors whose books are practically [...], in PowerPoint form already written. "

His chapter in turn to look at the different online experiences of music, journalism, television, books and movies, and he recommends, finally a version of "blanket license" for the music and perhaps messages managed by ISPs. Levine is particularly interesting on the (deliberately) politics behind the construction and regulation of the Internet, and devastating (in a wonderfully debonair, lawyer-friendly) to the curious way in which taking a few scientists institutional promotion of online giants like Google, and then found - quite by accident, without a doubt - recommend Google-friendly policies in the field of copyright and other issues in their role as public intellectuals. It is unfortunate that just to make the recent events have the luster of the idea, implicitly, the author advocates seem to be that James Murdoch to be the savior of journalism.

Castells and the MediaBy Philip N Howard (Polity, £ 12.99)
An introduction to the work of the sociologist Manuel Castells, who declared a decade ago, that the "Information Society" had given the "network society," says the book concepts such as "self-programmable work" modern media workers required, and applies Castells 's ideas Barack Obama' s "networked" campaign of 2008 and the permanent "beta culture" of late modernity. It is quite interesting in an abstract manner, although with some failures of sound ( Star Trek Fans won 't will appreciate knowing the name "nutty") and some strange exaggerated claims of the type endemic to the field: "In the past it was useful to distinguish between the real world and virtual world or between face-to-face and online interaction. "I think it still make sense, don 't you?

An appendix, now sets some exercises, which I especially like the idea of ??running a 24-hour "\ monitoring diary," noted not only the obvious sources of surveillance (CCTV, web cookies, e-mail protocols) but also ATM machines, public transport cards, supermarket "Loyalty" cards, credit card purchases and the others. It 's enough to dream of a start to go off-grid.

Famous Past LivesBy Steve Burgess (O Books, £ 8.99)
If the reincarnations of William Shakespeare and Queens Elizabeth and Mary really were stalking the planet right now, what are the chances that they would all live in this country and consult the same hypnotherapist-author? Readers to whom this seems improbable may nevertheless be intrigued by the remarkably eloquent testimonies of Burgess's patients, in which we learn that Shakespeare went travelling a lot, enjoyed an affair with Ben Jonson and had a surprisingly inept command of Elizabethan syntax ("I doth learneth").

Past-life regression, it turns out, can use "skin problems", "Cancer" help "relationship challenges" and "stress", and only a cynic would point out that such claims omni effectiveness are characteristic for all quack therapies. Nevertheless, some mainstream treatments would be in "Lisa" (formerly Queen Bess) to live through a sexual encounter with Robert Dudley result, whereupon the author of the comment: "I actually had a 400-year-old royal orgasm experienced" A matching, albeit belated, tribute \ to the summer's wedding.