In my Media Law class we are discussing copyright and the protection of intellectual property. Lawrence Lessig spoke at TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) about copyright laws "choking creativity". In the video, Lessig who is a lawyer and activist concerning copyright issues, speaks about a "read write" culture versus a "read only" culture. He argues that in our digital world, we are "read write" by nature and copyright laws have become too restrictive and forcing us into a world where we are just supposed to accept and process the information given to us. We are creative by nature and want to make things "our own".
Lessig challenged the Supreme Court against extending copyright protection from 50 to 70 years. Although he lost, he has teamed up with forces such as Napster and Youtube (sites that encourage creativity and mashups of different works) to fight against the choking of creativity with copyright laws. Lessig is chairman of Creative Commons, a free licensing company for individual creators that allows "some rights reserved" as opposed to "all rights reserved". Creative Commons gives people controll over their ideas but tells people they can use someone elses work for creative purposes. Creative Commons allows the creator to tailor the license in a way that allows a "read write" culture while mainitaining some rights on the original work.
TED- Lawrence Lessig Profile
Larry Lessig on laws that choke creativity
Creative Commons
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