[…] McLeod and DiCola believe that people, not corporate entities define society and that even wonderfully radical art or technology is still beholden to that society. They supplement this sentiment with a proposal to reform sample clearance laws, under which artists are free to sample within reason, and rights holders can pay a fee to a third, possibly governmental, party to stop the sampling artist. It’s an interesting idea that requires all parties to create a shared perspective on the new digital reality. But given the political dimension of our society’s inability to be proactive about anything, their proposal is largely an academic exercise.

Luckily, the book uses supplementary A/V materials to rescue its issues from pure theory: a video documentary called Copyright Criminals, and a sonic bibliography by old school remixer Steinski. Viewed together, these resources form like Voltron to attack the robeast that is capitalism, and, ultimately, point at living culture as the point from which solutions will emerge.