Lawrence Lessig, ?the most important thinker on intellectual property in the Internet era? (The New Yorker), masterfully argues that never before in human history has the power to control creative progress been so concentrated in the hands of the powerful few, the so-called Big Media. Never before have the cultural powers- that-be been able to exert such control over what we can and can?t do with the culture around us. Our society defends free markets and free speech; why then does it permit such top-down control? To lose our long tradition of free culture, Lawrence Lessig shows us, is to lose our freedom to create, our freedom to build, and, ultimately, our freedom to imagine.

Lawrence Lessig, “the most important thinker on intellectual property in the Internet era” (The New Yorker), masterfully argues that never before in human history has the power to control creative progress been so concentrated in the hands of the powerful few, the so-called Big Media. Never before have the cultural powers- that-be been able to exert such control over what we can and can’t do with the culture around us. Our society defends free markets and free speech; why then does it permit such top-down control? To lose our long tradition of free culture, Lawrence Lessig shows us, is to lose our freedom to create, our freedom to build, and, ultimately, our freedom to imagine.

Lawrence Lessig, “the most important thinker on intellectual property in the Internet era” (The New Yorker), masterfully argues that never before in human history has the power to control creative progress been so concentrated in the hands of the powerful few, the so-called Big Media. Never before have the cultural powers- that-be been able to exert such control over what we can and can’t do with the culture around us. Our society defends free markets and free speech; why then does it permit such top-down control? To lose our long tradition of free culture, Lawrence Lessig shows us, is to lose our freedom to create, our freedom to build, and, ultimately, our freedom to imagine.

Lawrence Lessig, “the most important thinker on intellectual property in the Internet era” (The New Yorker), masterfully argues that never before in human history has the power to control creative progress been so concentrated in the hands of the powerful few, the so-called Big Media. Never before have the cultural powers- that-be been able to exert such control over what we can and can’t do with the culture around us. Our society defends free markets and free speech; why then does it permit such top-down control? To lose our long tradition of free culture, Lawrence Lessig shows us, is to lose our freedom to create, our freedom to build, and, ultimately, our freedom to imagine.

Lawrence Lessig, "the most important thinker on intellectual property in the Internet era" (The New Yorker), masterfully argues that never before in human history has the power to control creative progress been so concentrated in the hands of the powerful few, the so-called Big Media. Never before have the cultural powers- that-be been able to exert such control over what we can and can’t do with the culture around us. Our society defends free markets and free speech; why then does it permit such top-down control? To lose our long tradition of free culture, Lawrence Lessig shows us, is to lose our freedom to create, our freedom to build, and, ultimately, our freedom to imagine.

A lucid, thoughtful defense of moderation in copyright law and preservation of the public domain
It is indicative of the widespread misconceptions about the nature and purpose of intellectual property law that Bill Gates could get away with so foolish a statement as to conflate the open source movement with communist dogma.

And it is to such misguided notions that professor Lessig responds with this work. The issue at stake with the current debate on copyright, Lessig contends, is not a simplistic battle of unrewarded creators against thieving pirates, as the content industry would have us believe. Nor is it a conflict between those who support individual property rights and aspiring property abolitioners. If anything, such strawmen have been set up for no other purpose than to vilify moderates on the copyright debate and frame discourse on a divisive ideological basis.

Contrary to media perceptions, those attempting to subvert the status quo have been the intellectual property extremists who favor limitless copyright terms, instead of the careful balance between incentives for creative work (through the state-enforced copyrights), and infusion of creative work into the public domain after a reasonable time frame.

That has been the rationale behind modern copyright law, and not the misguided notion that a corporation may hold perpetual ownership of the ideas conceived by its employees - "for ever minus one day", per Jack Valenti’s infamous quip. This latter restrictive, extremist approach to copyright, Lessig argues, would hamper the fertilization of public domain with new ideas, stifle innovation and go to the face of copyright law’s goals.

"Free Culture" provides numerous examples of how the eventual flow of copyrighted works into the public domain buttresses innovation and creativity ; how the staunchest sponsors of limitless copyright extensions have they themselves tapped into the public domain for some of their most cherished values, and how creativity, just as much as artistic and individual liberties are compromised by the tidal wave of copyright extremism.

In light of the encroachment upon consumer rights, creative freedom and the public domain by such restrictive measures as anti-circumvention laws and retroactive copyright extensions, Lawrence Lessig’s book is an eloquent, indispensable call for some long-needed moderation in the copyright debate.

A must read for anyone serious about their freedom
A must read for anyone serious about their freedom. The history of copyright of the world is covered. Larry makes this accessible to anyone and puts copyright and fair use in the context of the original creation of copyrights.

A must-read for anyone interested or concerned about copyrights
This book is not only a history lesson on copyright, but it shows how big corporate enterprises obtain and used material, through the same methods they now want to deny the general public, in order to get to the powerful presence they are today.

Example: Disney using lots of old fairy-tales which were in public domain. And today they fight for everything never to go into public domain in order to keep profit to themselves, while at the same time going after creative use that would expand our culture and art.

Fascinating
This book is worth the price just to hear the constant process of American culture - be a pirate, fend off "the man" to build your industry, become "the man," then go after the pirates who are presumably cutting into your business. Money makes hypocrites of us all. Please, RIAA, don’t sue me for reading this book (although I’m sure you’ll find a way, if there aren’t any grandmothers or poor college students you can harass).

Everyone should read this
This book is excellent. Lessig’s argument is thorough and well-developed, showing why the copyright laws affect all of us, from producers of copyright material to consumers and creative innovators building off of previous work. A great, and important, read for anyone, especially those interested in learning how Big Media in bed with Congress has successfully limited the freedom of typically law-abiding citizens to empower the old corporations and enfeeble the upstarts.

Whether conservative or liberal or anything in between, the book should really "strike home" and make you understand just how important it is to have a free culture.

A must for anyone online
I heard Lawrence Lessig speak at a conference earlier in 2006 and it was one of the best presentations I’d ever heard. So it will come as no surprise that his book is written in the same to the point, easy to follow and conscise style.

It’s historical research sets the foundation for a look at things to come on the Internet as new technology threatens established media, much the same way as Lessig points out it did in previous centuries. The pirates of yesteryear are the corporations of today who threaten the pirates of today. He is humble as he describes his defeat in the US Supreme Court and proactive as he puts some suggestions forward to resolve the current crisis affecting copyright on the Net.

Couldn’t put it down and have already purchased Code 2 by the same author.

This is an incredible book and a must-have if you want to learn about new copyright rules!
This is an incredible book. I agree so much with the discussions that Lawrence gives, and the material is a great look at issues related to the special interest groups and some of the things they have pushed and are trying to push through Congress.

An excellent summary of the history and potential future of copyright
You might think a book about the history and future of copyright law would be painfully boring. If the book is Free Culture: The Nature & Future of Creativity, by Lawrence Lessig, you’d be wrong. Lessig does a fantastic job of framing copyright with terms and scenarios everyone can understand. On top of that, he’s a very engaging writer, the type that can probably make just about any topic interesting.

Lessig explains how large media companies like Disney got their start in an era of very relaxed copyright rules and regulations. In fact, Disney’s classic Steamboat Willie was nothing more than a knock-off of Buster Keaton’s Steamboat Bill, Jr. What would happen if you tried to do the same thing today and based your video on a Disney character? You’d probably get a nice cease and desist letter from the folks at Disney.

One could argue that the IP policies that existed when Disney got off the ground needed some adjustments to fit today’s content world. Lessig points out where things have probably gone too far though (e.g., the ridiculously high financial penalties associated with peer-to-peer file sharing). I’m not saying piracy isn’t wrong. Not at all. As I’ve said on my blog, stealing is stealing, but Lessig gives plenty of examples to show how the resulting penalties are more than excessive.

A main thrust of the book has to do with how Congress keeps extending copyright terms and that almost nothing is therefore allowed to move into the public domain. He argued the case at the Supreme Court level but apparently lost because he couldn’t show how the situation was hurting anyone. He makes a good point that there are plenty of works in a state of limbo, not really in distribution but beyond the reach of the public domain because they’re still covered by copyright term extensions. I tend to agree with the Supreme Court though and find it hard to believe there are loads of derivative works opportunities that aren’t being leveraged because of this. That said, Lessig presents an interesting alternative copyright model where owners can opt in to extend the original term.

Lessig is also well-known for his work on the Creative Commons (CCL) initiative. The CCL is a valuable model and a nice alternative for certain uses. Given Lessig’s advocacy of the CCL though, I find it interesting that he doesn’t use that model for this book. That’s a shame since there might be someone out there who wants to use portions of Free Culture to create a derivative work of their own. (Although the CCL is more often associated with online content, it can also be used for offline works.)

today’s content owners are yesterday’s pirates
Lessig has written a very clear and entertaining book about copyright, piracy, and culture, filled with lots of real-world examples to make his points. The book covers major events in the history of copyright in the United States (from its beginnings in English common law and the UK Statute of Anne) in order to show how its meaning has changed, and how those who are making accusations of piracy today were the pirates of yesterday. (Jessica Littman’s book, Digital Copyright, is a nice complement to this book, covering the history of copyright in greater depth.) Lessig makes a strong case that the direction of copyright, giving greater control over content to a very small number of owners than has ever existed, is eroding the freedom that we’ve historically had to preserve and transform the elements of our culture.

Lessig begins by describing how the notion of a real property right for land extending into the sky to "an indefinite extent, upwards" became a real rather than theoretical issue with the invention of the airplane. In 1945, the Causbys, a family of North Carolina farmers, filed a suit against the government for trespassing with its low-flying planes, and the Supreme Court declared the airways to be public space. This example shows how the scope of property rights can change with changes of technology, in this particular case resulting in an uncompensated taking from private property owners, yet leading to enormous innovation and the development of a new industry and form of transportation. He follows this with the example of the development of FM radio, which was intentionally back-burnered by RCA and then hobbled by government regulation at RCA’s behest in order to protect its existing investment in AM radio. This example shows how powerful interests can stifle technological change through its ownership of intellectual property (in this case, the patents regarding FM radio).

He then discusses how intellectual property laws have developed in the U.S., pointing out that Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse made his talking picture debut in the movie "Steamboat Willie" (he had earlier appeared in a silent cartoon, "Plane Crazy"), which was a parody of Buster Keaton’s "Steamboat Bill." Many of Disney’s characters and stories were taken directly from the previous work of others, such as the Brothers Grimm--works in the public domain, freely available for such copying. As new forms of media have been created, they have borrowed from previous forms. Today, however, the creators of content who have borrowed from their predecessors have successfully changed the rules so that their successors cannot borrow from them, both by extending the term and scope of copyright protection and by developing technologies that have greatly reduced the ability of successors to borrow or re-use content. The specific rules are completely inconsistent, based on the political power of the relevant parties at the time the laws were changed. When Edison developed the ability to record sounds, including recording music written by others, copyright law was changed to provide for compulsory licensing for a fee paid to the composer. With radio broadcasting, the fee still goes to the composer, but not to the recording artist. But put that same radio broadcast on the Internet, and now fees must be paid to both the composer and the recording artist.

Where there used to be a sea of unregulated uses of copyrighted material containing a small island of restricted uses (with shores of fair use), there is now a vast continent of restricted uses, a stark cliff of fair use, and a tiny channel of unregulated uses. Lessig shows a table on pp. 170-171 showing commercial and noncommercial uses and the rights to publish and transform for each. In 1790, copyright only governed publication rights for commercial uses, the other three cells of the table being free. At the end of the 19th century, publication and transformation for commercial use was governed by copyright, while noncommercial use was free. The law was changed to govern copies, including much noncommercial use. Today, all four cells of the table are governed by copyright.

Lessig discusses Eric Eldred’s attempt to defend the right to transform public domain works into electronic versions by fighting Congress’s continuing extensions of the term of copyright in the face of the Constitution’s restriction to "limited Times," and how the case was lost at the U.S. Supreme Court to inconsistent reasoning from the conservative justices who failed to even address the commerce clause argument and the precedent they set in Lopez v. Morrison case. This is a wonderfully written, persuasive, entertaining, and dismaying book. It deserves to be widely read and understood, so that ultimately intellectual property law in the U.S. will be reformed.

[...]

frightening scenario coming true
Lessig’s book, like his previous The Future of Ideas, presents a frightening scenario where control of our culture through copyright law is increasingly in the hands of a handful of media conglomerates. Lessig describes the dangers posed by copyright law run rampant, and his description of his handling of oral arguments before the Supreme Court in the case that failed to stop the tide is self-effacing and instructive. The book is accessible for non-lawyers, although it is also adequately endnoted for those with legal training. Anyone who is concerned about the efforts of the MPAA and RIAA to stop "piracy" by abridging the rights of ordinary citizens should definitely read this explanation of the law and the people who increasingly control it.

Inspiring !
Discussing law is always a challenge to an author, especially if he/she wishes to make it simple, interesting, and critical. This book is not a book for academics, it is a book for the people who support the tradition of freedom of speech and liberty in our culture. This book is simple, interesting and critical : simple in the sense that one with no legal background can understand it (but at the same time, Professor Lessig’s argument is compelling); interesting in the sense that Professor Lessig has great sense of humour in explaining the present situation; critical, needless to say, Professor Lessig is well-known of his role in the litigation regarding the legitimacy of the extension of the copyright term at the Supreme Court.
This book is recommended for all, and is a must for all law students and lawyers.