• Freeloading

  • How Our Insatiable Hunger for Free Content Starves Creativity
  • By: Chris Ruen
  • Narrated by: Chris Ruen
  • Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
  • 3.0 out of 5 stars (4 ratings)

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Freeloading  By  cover art

Freeloading

By: Chris Ruen
Narrated by: Chris Ruen
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Editorial reviews

After finishing this audiobook, listeners will come away with a new understanding of how piracy hurts creativity. Performing his own book, writer Chris Ruen, a former freeloader himself, offers a critical look at the consequences of freeloading without condescending or scolding listeners. Instead, he presents his arguments in a reasonable and earnest tone, describing the compromises that artists must make in order to make up for the loss of revenue due to piracy. Ruen includes interviews with contemporary musicians such as the Hold Steady and Yeasayer to humanize the problems of stealing creative works. Listeners will also discover practical solutions that will both protect artists and allow consumers to enjoy their work.

Publisher's summary

Internet piracy: It’s an eternal battle pitting indies versus corporations, free spirits against the money-grubbing Scrooge McDucks of the world.

Right?

Sort of, sometimes - maybe not. Freeloading takes a critical, cool look at a near-pervasive phenomenon that involves almost everyone who taps a keyboard: Beyond that, it's a reminder of the truism that for every action there are consequences. What happens when we pirate a favorite work of art - a song, book, or movie? And as importantly: What, if anything, can or should be done about it?

Internet piracy has created unlikely allies. On the one hand, there are original creators of content, including artists and corporate copyright holders - on the other, legions of free-spirited consumers who see themselves in the hacker/OWS tradition.

Author Chris Ruen, himself a former dedicated freeloader, came to understand how illegal downloads can threaten an entire artistic community after spending time with successful Brooklyn bands who had yet to make a significant profit on their popular music. The product of innumerable late-night, caffeine-fueled conversations and interviews with contemporary musicians such as Craig Finn of The Hold Steady, Ira Wolf Tuton of Yeasayer, and Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio, Freeloading not only dissects this ongoing battle - casting a critical eye on the famous SOPA protests and the attendant rhetoric - but proposes concise, practical solutions that would provide protection to artists and consumers alike.

©2012 Chris Ruen (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
  • Unabridged Audiobook

Critic reviews

"A wonderful book that catches an encouraging shift in the zeitgeist. Ruen’s epiphany regarding the effects of his own piracy and freeloading of the bands he loves was eye opening." (David Byrne)

What listeners say about Freeloading

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Could be much shorter

It starts being pretty interesting, and as a whole is very amusing, but then it goes on and on with the same ideas.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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Not limited to music

Would you try another book from Chris Ruen and/or Chris Ruen?

Not at the moment. I was disappointed that such a broad topic would be limited to the music industry.

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