Writer, poet and cultural commentator Darren Wershler-Henry is taking his writing to the classroom. Author of Free as in Speech and Beer: Open Source, Peer-to-Peer and the Economics of the Online Revolution, he has begun teaching a course at York based on the book. It was published by Penguin Canada in July.
The Penguin Web site carries this information about the book: “A rapid-fire, uncontrollable exchange of digital information of all sorts is quickly eroding copyright laws, licensing systems, pricing schemes and the other trappings of intellectual property management that our society has carefully tended for the last two centuries. 
Free as in Speech and Beer explores this erosion of our intellectual rights and draws together all of the elements of the story: the history, the philosophy, and the present reality of how technology is transforming the core economic beliefs of our society.”
Wershler-Henry has been an editor at Coach House Press until recently. He gave up the position to teach at York. As well as having four books on the Internet and two books of poetry, he has a new book coming out, co-authored with Hal Niedzvieki, entitled The Original Canadian City Dweller’s Almanac, a tongue-in-cheek guide to living in the city.