[Irtalk] Free Knowledge - Confronting the Commodification of Human Discovery - U of R Press

[Hilton Gibson]

*Alarms are being sounded around the globe over the increasing
commercialization of public knowledge for private profit.* Whether you are
a farmer, a university student, a medical patient, or a library user, these
developments impact your daily life.

Knowledge privatization holds growing sway over the choice of the foods you
eat, the medicine you take, the software you use, the music you hear, and
even the flowers you plant in your own backyard. This is the result of a
world where plant seeds have become subject to patents, medical research is
overseen by pharmaceutical giants, universities are beholden to corporate
funders, and Indigenous knowledge is expropriated.

*The good news is that people are fighting back, working to create spaces
where humanity's knowledge can be reclaimed and shared for the public good.*
Composed of fifteen essays from seventeen writers, ranging from academics
to farmers to Indigenous knowledge keepers, *Free Knowledge is a book on
the front lines in the shared project of creating and protecting our
Knowledge Commons.*

http://uofrpress.ca/publications/Free-Knowledge
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