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[FYI] NewsForge Coverage of Lessig’s Talk



<http://msl1.mit.edu/furdlog/index.php?p=1541>

NewsForge Coverage of Lessig’s Talk    [8:58 pm]

(See below) Lessig: IP protection a business, not cultural, 
battleground

“These laws have become an insane and unintended burden on creators, 
because nobody had conceived of the Internet at the time, which has 
changed everything,” he said. “Nobody had any idea of the new 
business opportunities and new businesses that were to be created by 
the Internet. This is why we need real reform now in intellectual 
property protection. Unfortunately, I don’t see anybody taking the 
lead in Washington to do anything about this.”

Growth in creative industries such as radio, television, movies, 
publishing, music – and, yes, software – is threatened when “a few 
powerful interests control how culture develops. Growth must occur in 
creative businesses when they protect themselves from these 
controlling interests,” Lessig said.

[…] “Let the commercial interests compete on execution of the ideas; 
that’s the free enterprise system,” Lessig said. “But the creators 
need to maintain the freedom to distribute their ideas any way they 
want. They shouldn’t be bogged down by 20-year copyrights and other 
old restrictions that bottle up good ideas” on keep them on the 
shelf, Lessig said.

[…] Silicon Valley as a whole has been “pathetic” in defending the 
rights of its creative people. “We believe in competition between 
business models and within business models,” Lessig said, “and 
monopolies tend to weaken this competition. Support for open 
platforms is also support for business in general. Support for 
competition is also cupport for culture. We have another ‘Kodak 
opportunity.’ We need to eliminate the debate between capitalism and 
communism and reframe it to between creators and business.” 

[...]



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