Chris Ruen is a New York Times published writer and author, a voice actor (SAG-AFTRA) and digital consultant.

FREELOADING (2012), an exploratory critique of c. 2010 digital utopianism and its justifications for digital piracy, was published in seven territories.

The artist David Byrne championed the book, inviting Ruen to join him as a co-headliner at the New York Public Library LIVE at NYPL series. The pair participated in further media appearances and activism.

Along with guitarist, author and activist Marc Ribot, Ruen organized and emcee’d the Artist Pay For Radio Play rally in NYC, which was covered by Billboard, The New York Times and Newsweek. Participants included David Byrne, Rosanne Cash, Jason Moran, John McCrea, Mike Mills, Tift Merritt, Ceramic Dog, Elysian Fields and others.

Ruen has narrated over 300 professional audiobooks as a working SAG-AFTRA voice actor.

He co-founded The Wake, an award-winning student magazine at University of Minnesota that is celebrating 22 years in print.

After many years in New York City, he now lives with his family on the east coast of Wisconsin, near Milwaukee. He is currently at work on a novel, based within a major news network in the immediate aftermath of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Visit the NOTEBOOK for anything new.

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Publishing Credits: The New York Times, Slate, Australian Financial Review, The New Republic, The New Statesman. Bookforum.com, Seattle Weekly, The New York Press and Stereogum.

Projects covered by: The New York Times, Newsweek, Australian Financial Review, El Mundo, CBC Q, Billboard, Salon, N+1, VICE, The Village Voice, and the Sydney Sunday Herald.

Freeloading: How Our Insatiable Appetite For Free Content Is Starving Creativity, was published in 2012 by OR Books (US/Canada) and later by Scribe Publications (Australia/New Zealand), Scribe UK (United Kingdom) and Ediciones Quinto 20 (Spain and Latin America).