Lewis Hyde

Cambridge Forum welcomes MacArthur Fellow LEWIS HYDE as he defends the concept of the cultural commons.  How has our cultural heritage, the store of ideas and art we have inherited from the past, come to be seen as intellectual property. Does the emergence of Wikileaks endanger the notion of freedom of the press?  Is “net neutrality” possible in the ownership society?

For the founding fathers, democratic self-governance itself demanded open and easy access to ideas. So did the growth of creative communities, such as that of eighteenth-century science. And so did the flourishing of public persons, the very actors whose “civic virtue” brought the nation into being.

In Common as Air, Hyde brings the past to bear on present matters, shedding fresh light on everything from the Human Genome Project to Bob Dylan’s musical roots. The book allows us to stand on the shoulders of America’s revolutionary giants and to see beyond today’s narrow debates over cultural ownership.