A book I consider important

http://dump.udderweb.com/CODE.pdf

http://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-Software/dp/0735611319

The author, Petzold, has been mentioned on /prog/ before, but AFAIK only in the context of his MS Windows books.

This one is different, because it helped me understand the nature of information, how it is part of reality and was so even before people existed.  In that way, it helped me understand what functional programming is.  (I'm sure that there is more than one path to that place, but this is the one I took.)

>>5
Publishers and lawyers like to describe copyright as “intellectual property”—a term also applied to patents, trademarks, and other more obscure areas of law. These laws have so little in common, and differ so much, that it is ill-advised to generalize about them. It is best to talk specifically about “copyright,” or about “patents,” or about “trademarks.”

The term “intellectual property” carries a hidden assumption—that the way to think about all these disparate issues is based on an analogy with physical objects, and our conception of them as physical property.

When it comes to copying, this analogy disregards the crucial difference between material objects and information: information can be copied and shared almost effortlessly, while material objects can't be.

To avoid spreading unnecessary bias and confusion, it is best to adopt a firm policy not to speak or even think in terms of “intellectual property”.
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.html

The hypocrisy of calling these powers “rights” is starting to make the World “Intellectual Property” Organization embarrassed.
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/wipo-PublicAwarenessOfCopyright-2002.html