American - Educator | June 3, 1961 -
A time is marked not so much by ideas that are argued about as by ideas that are taken for granted. The character of an era hangs upon what needs no defense.
Lawrence Lessig
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All around us are the consequences of the most significant technological, and hence cultural, revolution in generations.
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Believing we know what makes prosperity work, ignoring the nature of the actual prosperity all around, we change the rules within which the Internet revolution lives. These changes will end the revolution.
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Monopoly controls have been the exception in free societies; they have been the rule in closed societies.
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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.
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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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While the creative works from the 16th century can still be accessed and used by others, the data in some software programs from the 1990s is already inaccessible.
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A free culture is not a culture without property; it is not a culture in which artists don't get paid.
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A culture without property, or in which creators can't get paid, is anarchy, not freedom.
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As we've seen, our constitutional system requires limits on copyright as a way to assure that copyright holders do not too heavily influence the development and distribution of our culture.
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The real harm of term extension comes not from these famous works. The real harm is to the works that are not famous, not commercially exploited, and no longer available as a result.
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Now that copyrights can be just about a century long, the inability to know what is protected and what is not protected becomes a huge and obvious burden on the creative process.
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