Thursday, June 21, 2007

Lessig Moves On From Copyright to Corruption

Lawrence Lessig, founder of the Creative Commons movement and copyright analyst (and previously interviewed here), is moving up onto a higher plane of the problem: the systematic corruption that makes politicians and professionals of different areas fail to understand his copyright analysis. For the last 10 years he worked on delivering clear arguments to the copyright debate, and for the next 10, it seems, he’s interested in finding solutions for why the arguments (at least the obvious ones, the “no brainers” – like how extending copyright terms doesn’t serve the public at large) are rejected by the system. Lawrence is convinced that “our government can’t understand basic facts when strong interests have an interest in its misunderstanding.”

Lawrence (who also posted a disclosure statement, like other bloggers did, convinced that the corruption of professionals – not just politicians – deserves attention) says he’s a beginner of this new subject that many already have worked on and are continuing to work on. His hope is “to build upon their work” while at the same time giving up some of the responsibilities with the Creative Commons movement... like constant lecturing about intellectual property issues. Indeed, those who wanted to hear Lawrence heard him by now, and many of those who don’t want to may well have a reasons for that beyond failing to see his arguments. But, Lawrence says...

... this is not a resolution of silence. It is a decision to change channels. This new set of issues is, in my view, critically important. Indeed, I’m convinced we will not solve the IP related issues until these “corruption" related issues are resolved. So I hope at least some of you will follow to this new set of questions.

[Via Boing Boing.]

Lessig Moves On From Copy ... by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (3)

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