But he believes that today's information revolution may be even more disruptive than the one Gutenberg set off with his printing press.
"Indeed, piracy might even increase the sales of the legitimate publishers, since it amounted to free advertising," Johns writes, summarizing the pirate's logic.
This semester Johns is teaching a course on the history of reading, and it is standing-room only.
"There's a deepening realization that the conceptual framework of intellectual property, which was defined in the Industrial Revolution, no longer fits with how we go around with our daily lives,"