Pirates, Prophets and Pioneers

A study revealing what happens when technology moves faster than governments and creates markets without rules. At these junctures, markets are prone to flourish wildly, and in order to understand our own current situation, Spar takes the reader back in time to scenes of earlier battles.

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The advance of digital technology is creating whole new markets and industries. Telecommunications is merging into media; information is blurring into entertainment; and commercial ventures of all types are being pulled into the amorphous space of the internet. Pirates, Prophets and Pioneers examines how these new technologies are pushing at the boundaries of existing rules and how governments are likely to respond to them. Using material gathered from four years of academic research and confidential interviews, Debora Spar brings us inside the world of business and politics in the digital age. In the process, she also takes us back in time, to explore to older technologies and earlier battles. Looking at the advent of radio and telegraphy, the rise of trans-oceanic trade and the development of satellite television, Spar finds striking parallels to our own time (for example, online music and software wars) and critical lessons for both business and politics.