FITUG e.V. Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft

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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