Putting words in Lawrence Lessig's mouth
I went to see Larry Lessig earlier this month, and while I should hesitate to re-contextualize his remarks too recklessly, I am not.
While he never referred to libraries in the talk, the gist of his remarks lead me to say this:
Lawrence Lessig believes in Library 2.0. Well, certain aspects of Library 2.0. Actually, his thing is bigger than Library 2.0 -- his focus was on participatory culture and how the Internet contributes to and inhibits that culture.
Raw notes are below.
Stanford Breakfast Briefing
Lawrence Lessig - Stanford Law School
Free Culture
John Philip Sousa opposed victrolas - thought it would ruin participatory culture
read-write culture vs. read-only (i.e. passive) culture - buying and consuming
Was Sousa right?
Creation and distributed of cultural products increasingly concentrated
Internet allows for recreation of read-write culture and the continuation of the read-only culture
mere consumption vs comsumption + creation + sharing
AMV - anime music videos
Political mash-ups
Religion-disco lipsynch videos
New literacy of the 21st century
Values of RW culture: democratic, social, educational
Also, can create more economic value - huge potential for economic growth compared to RO
(c) law supports RO Internet but it hasn't always provided control by content owners
Ex. books
Uses were mostly unregulated by the law: to read it, give it, sell it, sleep on it
3 layers of rights: free rights/uses, regulated uses/rights, fair uses (things that could be regulated, but are not due to other/conflicting values)
Focus on commercial uses, not personal uses
Change in technology has changed the equation - in the digital realm, working with
Law conflicts with/rejects the RW Internet
Permission is required for everything but is not
(c) currently requires permission and threatens to smother/over-burden RW culture
The problem is not copyright law, but a particular architecture of (c) law
We're in a war to protect the business models of companies that we know, while oblivious to new business models
How to fix - recognize the dissonance and update/reform the law
3 steps:
* Be opposed against "piracy" - it's not about free music
* Find a way to change the law - problem: "IP McCarthyism" (i.e. - people who advocate for reform risk being called "Commies" or "pirates")
* Promote private reform - ex.: Creative Commons (comes with 3 layers: human-readable license, lawyer-readable license, machine-readable RDF)
Free distribution of content - may create/increase a market for traditional sales
ex.: Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
South Africa HSRC (Human Science Research Council)
Divergence between pop culture and science/university culture - the latter is built on the sharing of knowledge and is fighting for openness
CC is not a solution, it's a step
This is basically an age of prohibition -- corrosive effect on the rule of law
The law should not be reformed today - the next generation will have their own understanding of culture that (c) law needs to take into account
Books and writing are becoming the modern version of Latin in churches, while the vulgar/vernacular is video & music
We have 400 years of norms regarding text and democratization of same, while we have maybe 4 years of norms regarding video