Quotessence
Home / Authors / Lawrence Lessig
Lawrence Lessig

Lawrence Lessig Quotes

Political activist

Filter quotes by topic

AllIfsPeopleCopyrightShouldCultureCreativityLawHas BeensThinkingIdeas

Famous Lawrence Lessig Quotes

“But, like all metaphoric wars, the copyright wars are not actual conflicts of survival. Or at least, they are not conflicts for survival of a people or a society, even if they are wars of survival for certain businesses or, more accurately, business models. Thus we must keep in mind the other values or objectives that might also be affected by this war. We must make sure this war doesn't cost more than it is worth. We must be sure it is winnable, or winnable at a price we're willing to pay.”

WarCopyright
Book:Remix: Making art and commerce thrive in the hybrid economy
Create image

“Lawyers rarely test their power, or the power they promote, against this simple pragmatic question: "Will it do good?" When challenged about the expanding reach of the law, the lawyer answers, "Why not?”

LawSimpleAnswersTestsLawyerWhy NotExpandingPragmatic
Book:Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity
Create image

“Creativity builds upon the public domain. The battle that we're fighting now is about whether the public domain will continue to be fed by creative works after their copyright expires. That has been our tradition but that tradition has been perverted in the last generation. We're trying to use the Constitution to reestablish what has always been taken for granted--that the public domain would grow each year with new creative work.”

TryingYearsHas BeensUseLastsFightingGrowsCreativityCreativeTakenGenerationsBattleTraditionConstitutionGrantedFedsDomainCopyrightCreative WorkTaken For GrantedPublic Domain
Author:Lawrence Lessig
Create image

“When you think about a presidential candidate spending all of his or her time talking to that tiny, tiny fraction of us who have the capacity to fund political elections, it's obvious why the perspective of government is skewed relative to what most Americans care about.”

ThinkingGovernmentCarePoliticalTalkingPerspectiveCapacityElectionObviousSpendingTinyPresidentialCandidatesFundRelativeFractionsPresidential CandidatePolitical Election
Author:Lawrence Lessig
Create image

“The crystal ball has a question mark in its center. There are some fundamental choices to be made. We will either choose to continue to wage a hopeless war to preserve the existing architecture for copyright by upping the stakes and using better weapons to make sure that people respect it. If we do this, public support for copyright will continue to weaken, pushing creativity underground and producing a generation that is alienated from the copyright concept.”

PeopleIfsMadeWarChoicesCreativitySupportGenerationsWeaponsConceptsBallsMarkFundamentalsArchitecturePreservesPushingHopelessStakesCrystalsCopyrightQuestion MarkCrystal Ball
Author:Lawrence Lessig
Create image

“The more important point, however, is not about what the money does. It's about what has to be done to get the money. The effect of the money might be (democratically) benign. But what is done to secure that money is not necessarily benign. To miss this point is to betray the Robin Hood fallacy: the fact that the loot was distributed justly doesn't excuse the means taken to secure it.”

MeanDoeImportantDoneFactsMightTakenEffectsMissingExcuseSecureBetrayHoodFallacyRobinsBenignRobin Hood
Author:Lawrence Lessig
Create image

“There are a lot of people who say we need to cut the amount of money that's spent in politics. I'm not sure that I agree. But I am sure that if you were talking about cutting the amount of money spent in politics, the media would have a strong interest in opposing you, because they make an enormous amount of money from political advertisements.”

PeopleIfsNeedsPoliticalStrongInterestTalkingCuttingMediaAmountAgreeEnormousNot SureOpposingAdvertisements
Author:Lawrence Lessig
Create image

“As more and more citizens express what they think, and defend it in writing, that will change the way people understand public issues. It is easy to be wrong and misguided in your head. It is harder when the product of your mind can be criticized by others. Of course, it is a rare human who admits that he has been persuaded that he is wrong. But it is even rarer for a human to ignore when he has been proven wrong. The writing of ideas, arguments, and criticism improves democracy.”

PeopleThinkingWayWritingMindHumansHas BeensIdeasCoursesEasyDemocracyIssuesProductsCitizensArgumentCriticismHarderProvenMisguidedProven Wrong
Book:Free Culture
Create image

“I think the reality is that copyright law has for a very long time been a tiny little part of American jurisprudence, far removed from traditional First Amendment jurisprudence, and that made sense before the Internet. Now there is an unavoidable link between First Amendment interests and the scope of copyright law. The legal system is recognizing for the first time the extraordinary expanse of copyright regulation and its regulation of ordinary free-speech activities.”

ThinkingFirstsLittlesLongMadeRealityLawInterestInternetActivitySpeechLong TimeOrdinaryFirst TimeExtraordinaryTinyTraditionalLinksAmendmentsRegulationFree SpeechRecognizingScopeFirst AmendmentCopyrightLegal SystemExpanseJurisprudenceCopyright Law
Author:Lawrence Lessig
Create image

“There is a regulation of behavior on the Internet and in cyberspace, but that regulation is imposed primarily through code. The differences in the regulations effected through code distinguish different parts of the Internet and cyberspace. In some places, life is fairly free; in other places, it is more controlled. And the difference between these spaces is simply a difference in the architectures of control--that is, a difference in code.”

DifferentLife IsDifferencesSpaceInternetBehaviorArchitectureCodeControlledRegulationCyberspace
Book:Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace, Version 2.0
Create image

“We live in a world with "free" content, and this freedom is not an imperfection. We listen to the radio without paying for the songs we hear; we hear friends humming tunes that they have not licensed. We tell jokes that reference movie plots without the permission of the directors. We read our children books, borrowed from a library, without paying the original copyright holder for the performance rights.”

WorldChildrenBookSongRightsDirectorsJokesPerformancesOur ChildrenOriginalsLibraryRadioTunesPlotImperfectionPermissionBorrowedCopyrightHummingChildren BookChildrens Book
Author:Lawrence Lessig
Create image

“A free culture supports and protects creators and innovators. It does this directly by granting intellectual property rights. But it does so indirectly by limiting the reach of those rights, to guarantee that follow-on creators and innovators remain as free as possible from the control of the past. A free culture is not a culture without property, just as a free market is not a market in which everything is free. The opposite of a free culture is a "permission culture" -- a culture in which creators get to create only with the permission of the powerful, or of creators from the past.”

DoePastCulturePowerfulSupportRightsProtectIntellectualOppositesPropertyCreatorGuaranteesPermissionFree MarketProperty RightsInnovatorsGuarantees ThatIntellectual Property
Author:Lawrence Lessig
Create image

“We are a cut-and-paste culture. The aim of the protectionists is to argue that a cut-and-paste culture is criminal. Well, it's only criminal if there's nothing out there that you can freely cut and paste. If we increasingly mark material as available for these non-commercial uses, then people will have the opportunity to see its importance.”

PeopleIfsWellsUseCultureOpportunityCuttingMaterialsImportanceMarkAimAvailableCriminalsArguing
Author:Lawrence Lessig
Create image

“Monopolies are not justified by theory; they should be permitted only when justified by facts. If there is no solid basis for extending a certain monopoly protection, then we should not extend that protection. This does not mean that every copyright must prove its value initially. That would be a far too cumbersome system of control. But it does mean that every system or category of copyright or patent should prove its worth. Before the monopoly should be permitted, there must be reason to believe it will do some good -- for society, and not just for monopoly holders.”

IfsShouldBelieveMeanDoeReasonFactsWould BeCertainValuesTheoryProveBasesProtectionCategoriesJustifiedMonopolyProve ItPatentsExtendingCopyright
Author:Lawrence Lessig
Create image

“As I've indicated, most books go out of print within one year. The same is true of music and film. Commercial culture is sharklike. It must keep moving. And when a creative work falls out of favor with the commercial distributors, the commercial life ends.”

YearsBookEndsFilmMovingFallCultureCreativeFavorsPrintKeep MovingCreative WorkDistributors
Book:Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity
Create image

“It might be crazy to expect a high government official to speak the truth. It might be crazy to believe that government policy will be something more than the handmaiden of the most powerful interests. It might be crazy to argue that we should preserve a tradition that has been part of our tradition for most of our history -- free culture. If this is crazy, then let there be more crazies. Soon.”

IfsShouldBelieveHas BeensGovernmentMightCultureSpeakInterestPowerfulCrazyPolicyTraditionArguingPreservesOfficialsMost PowerfulSpeak The TruthBeing CrazyGovernment OfficialsGovernment Policy
Book:Free Culture
Create image

“Here's what we [Americans] need: a 30 second you tube video of some guy at a party constantly checking out everyone else at the party, while he pretends to be speaking to the other person. We're the other person. The guy are the politicians. And the distraction is the corruption: We need a Congress that can afford to talk to us. For at least one drink or so.”

NeedsPersonsGuyPartyPoliticianDrinkCongressCorruptionVideoDistractionTubesChecking Out
Author:Lawrence Lessig
Create image

“I am big supporter of the idea of a global anti-corruption movement - but one that begins by recognizing that the architecture of corruption is different in different countries. The corruption we suffer is not the same as the corruption that debilitates Africa. But it is both corruption, and both need to be eliminated if the faith in democracy is not going to be destroyed.”

IfsNeedsIdeasDifferentCountryBigsSufferingDemocracyMovementCorruptionArchitectureDestroyedSupporterRecognizingDifferent Countries
Author:Lawrence Lessig
Create image

“I find focusing clearly on the problem is the first step to seeing a solution. The problem is (a) the insane amount of time spent raising money from (b) a freakishly tiny proportion of America. Basically .05% are the "relevant funders" of campaigns, meaning candidates can't help but be overly sensitive to the views of that tiny fraction relative to the rest of us. IF that's the problem, THEN the solution is to spread the funders out: to increase the range of us who are the relevant funders of elections, through schemes like vouchers or coupons given to every voter.”

IfsFirstsHelpingProblemAmericaGivenViewsStepsSeeingAmountSolutionsIncreaseElectionSpreadTinyCampaignsInsaneRangeSensitiveCandidatesProportionVotersRelativeRelevantFirst StepsSchemesFractionsTime SpentRaising MoneyVouchers
Author:Lawrence Lessig
Create image