important, the potential spectrum offered. Peter Huber helped me under-
stand telephone companies and the very different potential they offered.

I am grateful as well to an extraordinary collection of law professors, who
have built in the field of cyberlaw an amazing community. James Boyle's
book _Shamans,_Software,_and_Spleens_ was my first introduction to the issues
that I address here; James Boyle the person has been a steady, invaluable
guide since. Jack Balkin, Yochai Benkler, Mark Lemley, Jessica Litman,
David Post, and Pam Samuelson have all taught me far more than I could
return to them.

My work on this book began at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center.
The theme was born in the passionate rants of its extraordinary director,
Charlie Nesson. Through our work as colleagues, and on the Microsoft case
as well, Jonathan Zittrain helped me see how platforms matter. He has been
a constant, if neglected, friend throughout the development of the argu-
ment here.

I am also especially grateful to the hundreds of readers of _The_Industry_
_Standard_ who have reacted to the snippets of this book that I have woven
into columns for that magazine. While the furor of many of those readers is
sometimes hard to suffer, the insights and wisdom of many have been criti-
cal in re-forming the views I express here.

Finally, there is a collection of people who figure throughout the story of
this book, but who were more central to its writing than the text might reveal.
These are the figures who are truly fighting for a cause. Some of them are
quite well known -- Richard Stallman, for example. Others are well known
among lawyers, at least -- Dennis Karjala, Jessica Litman, Marc Rotenberg,
Pam Samuelson. But others inspire more through their simple and quiet
perseverance. Eric Eldred, whom you will meet in the course of these
pages, is the best example of this type. These ideas would never have been
put into words without the inspiration from people like him.

///\\\

Early versions of this book were read by a number of people. I
am grateful to those who offered critical (and sometimes especially critical)
comments -- in particular Bruce Ackerman, Yochai Benkler, David Bollier,
Scott Hemphill, Dewayne Hendricks, Tom Maddox, Charles Nesson, Rich-
ard A. Posner, Barbara van Schewick, Timothy Wu, and Robert Young. My
research was aided by an army of students, including Amy Ash, Scott Ash-
ton, Aaron Bukofzer, Sky Canaves, Brian Gustafson, Drew Harris, Scott

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