Lawrence Lessig quotes - page 3

Lawrence Lessig is an American academic, attorney, and political activist, widely recognized for his work on copyright law and internet freedom. A founder of the Creative Commons project, he has advocated for open access to knowledge and reform of digital rights. He is also known for his efforts to address political corruption and promote campaign finance reform in the United States. Here are 102 of his quotes:

So uncritically do we accept the idea of property in culture that we don't even question when the control of that property removes our ability, as a people, to develop our culture democratically.

Lawrence Lessig

A free culture is not a culture without property; it is not a culture in which artists don't get paid.

Lawrence Lessig

They win because we've done nothing to stop it.

Lawrence Lessig

It's insane. It's extreme. It's controlled by political interests. It has no justification in the traditional values that justify legal regulation. And we've done nothing about it.

Lawrence Lessig

We really need to think quite pragmatically about whether intellectual property is helping or hurting, and if you can't show it's going to help, then there is no reason to issue this government-backed monopoly.

Lawrence Lessig

When they get back to the editing room, they realize that on the television, you can barely make out the show for two seconds; it's "The Simpsons," Homer Simpson on the screen. So they call up Matt Groening, who was a friend of the documentary filmmaker, and say, you know, Is this going to be a problem? It's only a couple seconds. Matt says, No, no, no, it's not going to be a problem, call so and so.

Lawrence Lessig

Common sense is with the copyright warriors because the debate so far has been framed at the extremes - as a grand either/or: either property or anarchy, either total control or artists won't be paid.

Lawrence Lessig

What's needed is a way to say something in the middle - neither "all rights reserved" nor "no rights reserved" but "some rights reserved" - and thus a way to respect copyrights but enable creators to free content as they see fit. In other words, we need a way to restore a set of freedoms that we could just take for granted before.

Lawrence Lessig

That means the world was divided into three camps, not two: Unregulated uses, regulated uses that were fair use, and the quintessential copyright world. Three categories.

Lawrence Lessig

Blindness becomes our common sense. And the challenge for anyone who would reclaim the right to cultivate our culture is to find a way to make this common sense open its eyes. So far, common sense sleeps. There is no revolt. Common sense does not yet see what there could be to revolt about.

Lawrence Lessig

Either of these two changes through law will produce a world where your freedom has been taken away. And, If you can't fight for your freedom . . . you don't deserve it.

Lawrence Lessig

This is not a left and right issue. This is the important thing to recognize: This is not about conservatives versus liberals.

Lawrence Lessig

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. Power runs with ideas that only the crazy would draw into doubt. The "taken for granted" is the test of sanity; "what everyone knows" is the line between us and them.

Lawrence Lessig

Now you look at this and you say this is insane. It's insane.

Lawrence Lessig

In the context of software development, where you have sequential and complementary developments, patents create an extraordinarily damaging influence on innovation and on the process of developing and bringing new ideas to market.

Lawrence Lessig

Monopolies are not justified by theory; they should be permitted only when justified by facts. If there is no solid basis for extending a certain monopoly protection, then we should not extend that protection.

Lawrence Lessig

By insisting on the Constitution's limits to copyright, obviously Eldred was not endorsing piracy. Indeed, in an obvious sense, he was fighting a kind of piracy - piracy of the public domain.

Lawrence Lessig

I received an email from JSTOR four days before Aaron died, from the president of JSTOR, announcing, celebrating that JSTOR was going to release all of these journal articles to anybody around the world who wanted access - exactly what Aaron was fighting for.

Lawrence Lessig

The problem is their insane rules are now being applied to the whole world. This insanity of control is expanding as everything you do touches copyrights.

Lawrence Lessig

In 1774, free culture was born. In a case called Donaldson v. Beckett in the House of Lords in England, free culture was made because copyright was stopped.

Lawrence Lessig

In an interview two days ago, Watts said, Here's the problem with Washington: "If you are explaining, you are losing."

Lawrence Lessig

I believe it would be right for common sense to revolt against the extreme claims made today on behalf of "intellectual property."

Lawrence Lessig