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Quote by Lawrence Lessig

“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.”

Quote by Lawrence Lessig

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

Work

Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace, Version 2.0

This book delves into the legal and ethical challenges posed by the rapid development of technology and the internet, offering insights into the evolving nature of cyberspace law. more

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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“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

“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.”

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Author:Lawrence Lessig

“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.”

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Book:Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity

Source: Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity

“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.”

Source: Free Culture

“While appropriation art is critical to art, it's an ambiguous art form in the world of the Supreme Court.”

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Author:Lawrence Lessig