Just one point that I’d like to key in on RE: the Techdirt post:

“If Chris can take the works of others and make it into something more valuable, aren’t we all better off because of it?”

I don’t see this as an honest question at all, but a nice narrative arch to obfuscate what’s actually going:

He’s says at the outset of the post that he and Anderson are aqcuiantances and that Anderson sought his feedback on the book prior to publication.

He necessarily addresses the criticisms and charges prefunctoraliy, but then really sugar coats them by omission of the fact that numerous portions of this book were taken verbatim in violation of the Creative Commons licence they were published under. What more of an affront to legitimate ‘free culture’ could there be??

Also, the heaviest criticisms laid out in the post are pretty much walked back by the author in the comments when elaborated on further by others.

I don’t think Anderson sought a back-and-forth or controversy about this book as much as he just wanted links and press. The bad press may yet to play to the books favor, serious plagiarism charges and poor reviews notwithstanding.

I find it more interesting that the pro-free articles and ‘discussion’ started to ramp up after the book was panned right out of the gate.