Siva Vaidhyanathan (born 1966) is an American cultural historian and

media scholar Media studies is a discipline (academia), discipline and field of study that deals with the content, history, and effects of various media (communication), media; in particular, the mass media. Media studies may draw on traditions from both the ...

, and the Robertson professor of Media Studies at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

. Vaidhyanathan is a permanent columnist at

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

and

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

; he is also a frequent contributor on media and cultural issues in various periodicals including '' The Chronicle of Higher Education'', ''

New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. The magazin ...

'', ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...

'',

, and '' The Baffler''. He directs the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia, which produces a television show, a radio program, several podcasts, and the '' Virginia Quarterly Review''.

Biography

Vaidhyanathan is of Indian descent and was born in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...

, and attended the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

, earning a BA in History in 1994 and a Ph.D. in 1999 in American Studies. From 1999 through the summer of 2007 he worked in the Department of Culture and Communication at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

, the School of Library and Information Studies at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

and

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. From 1988 through 1993 he was a professional journalist working for several Texas daily newspapers. He has appeared in an episode of ''

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

'' to discuss early social network services. Vaidhyanathan has appeared in several documentary films, including '' Terms and Conditions May Apply'' (2013)
''Inside the Mind of Google''
(2009), and ''

Freedom of Expression Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The rights, right to freedom of expression has been r ...

'' (2007). In 2016 Vaidhyanathan played a prominent role in the higher-education documentary
''Starving the Beast''
Vaidhyanathan was portrayed as a character on stage at the Public Theater in New York City in a play called ''Privacy'' (2016). Siva Vaidhyanathan PDF 2011

Vaidhyanathan is a fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities and the Institute for the Future of the Book. Vaidhyanathan serves on the board of the Digital Public Library of America.

Selected books

* ''Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How It Threatens Creativity'', NYU Press, 2001. () * ''The Anarchist in the Library: How the Clash Between Freedom and Control Is Hacking the Real World and Crashing the System'', Basic Books, 2004. () * ''Rewiring the Nation: The Place of Technology in American Studies'', co-edited with Carolyn de la Peña, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007. () * Siva Vaidhyanathan at Georgetown

''The Googlization of Everything -- and Why We Should Worry'', University of California Press, 2011. (). The text was in open development on a blog, launched September 27, 2007 in collaboration with the Institute for the Future of the Book. * ''Intellectual Property: A Very Short Introduction'', Oxford University Press, 2017. () * ''Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us And Undermines Democracy'', Oxford University Press, 2018. ()

References

* Camp, L. Jean. DRM: doesn't really mean digital copyright management * Eschenfelder, Kristin R. (2007) Every Library's Nightmare? Digital Rights Management and Licensed Scholarly Digital Resources * Ross, Andrew. "Technology and Below-the-Line Labor in the Copyfight over Intellectual Property". ''American Quarterly'', Volume 58, Number 3, September 2006, pp. 743–766 * Vaidhyanathan, Siva. "Critical Information Studies: A Bibliographic Manifesto". ''Cultural Studies'' 20(2/3) (March/May 2006): 292–315. ISSN 0950-238
Download the .pdf

External links

Video of Vaidhyanathan discussing social media in 2005 on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Videos of conversations and discussions involving Vaidhyanathan
on Bloggingheads.tv
Video: Siva Vaidhyanathan discusses ''The Googlization of Everything (And Why We Should Worry)''
on Forum Network. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vaidhyanathan, Siva 1966 births Copyright activists Copyright scholars Intellectual property activism Living people American bloggers University of Virginia School of Law faculty University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts alumni Academics from New York (state) Writers from Buffalo, New York American male non-fiction writers American male writers of Indian descent Williamsville East High School alumni

Biography

Selected books

See also

References

External links