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Quote by Lawrence Lessig

“If there were two candidates, a Democrat and a Republican, who each committed to the same kind of fundamental reform, then the election would be an election between the vice presidential candidates. It'd be just like the regular election, except it would be one step down.”

Quote by Lawrence Lessig

Author

Lawrence Lessig

Lawrence Lessig is a distinguished political activist and legal scholar, recognized for his work in intellectual property law, copyright, and governance. He has been a professor at Harvard Law School and is the founder of the Creative Commons movement. more

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“There are very few people in our society who are actually free to say what they believe. I am in an extremely fortunate position in having this enormous gift of freedom and believe I should try to use it to do something useful for society. As long as I feel as if I have something to say, I’ll continue to try to do that.”

People Ifs Feels Should Trying Believe Long Use Position Enormous Fortunate Our Society

Author:Lawrence Lessig

“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.”

People Thinking Way Writing Mind Humans Has Beens Ideas Courses Easy Democracy Issues Products Citizens Argument Criticism Harder Proven Misguided Proven Wrong

Book:Free Culture

Source: Free Culture

“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.”

“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.”

Different Life Is Differences Space Internet Behavior Architecture Code Controlled Regulation Cyberspace

Book:Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace, Version 2.0

Source: Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace, Version 2.0

“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.”

“"Writing" is the Latin of our times. The modern language of the people is video and sound.”

People Writing Language Sound Modern Video Our Time Latin Modern Languages

Author:Lawrence Lessig

“I think if the copyright regime focuses on the people we are supposed to be helping, the artists and creators, and builds a system that gives them the freedom to choose and to protect and to be rewarded for their creativity, then we will have the right focus.”

People Ifs Thinking Giving Helping Artist Creativity Focus Protect Creator Supposed To Be Regimes Copyright Freedom To Choose

Author:Lawrence Lessig

“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.”

Doe Past Culture Powerful Support Rights Protect Intellectual Opposites Property Creator Guarantees Permission Free Market Property Rights Innovators Guarantees That Intellectual Property

Author:Lawrence Lessig

“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.”

People Ifs Wells Use Culture Opportunity Cutting Materials Importance Mark Aim Available Criminals Arguing

Author:Lawrence Lessig

“The legal system doesn't work. Or more accurately, it doesn't work for anyone except those with the most resources. Not because the system is corrupt. I don't think our legal system (at the federal level, at least) is at all corrupt. I mean simply because the costs of our legal system are so astonishingly high that justice can practically never be done.”

Thinking Mean Done Justice Levels Cost Resources Legal System

Author:Lawrence Lessig