Top Ten Best Lawrence Lessig Quotes

Lawrence Lessig is an American academic & political activist, most famous as a proponent of reduced legal restrictions on copyright, trademark, and radio frequency spectrum, especially in technology applications.
The Top Ten
1 You can't incent a dead person. No matter what we do, Hawthorne will not produce any more works, no matter how much we pay him.
2 When government disappears, it's not as if paradise will take its place. When governments are gone, other interests will take their place.
3 There has never been a time in history when more of our "culture" was as "owned" as it is now. And yet there has never been a time when the concentration of power to control the uses of culture has been as unquestioningly accepted as it is now.
4 It might be crazy to expect a high government official to speak the truth..to argue..we should preserve a tradition..has been part of..our history.. If this is crazy,then let there be more crazies.Soon.
5 If you can't fight for your freedom..you don't deserve it..This is not a left & right issue..important thing to recognize:..not about conservatives versus liberals..This is not about left & right.This is about right & wrong.That's what this battle is.
6 We have a massive system to regulate creativity. A massive system of lawyers regulating creativity as copyright law has expanded in unrecognizable forms, going from a regulation of publishing to a regulation of copying.
7 Creation always involves building upon something else.There is no art that doesn't reuse..there will be less art if every reuse is taxed by the appropriator.Monopoly controls have been..exception in free societies;they have been..rule in closed societies
8 Overregulation stifles creativity. It smothers innovation. It gives dinosaurs a veto over the future. It wastes the extraordinary opportunity for a democratic creativity that digital technology enables.
9 Creativity and innovation always builds on the past. The past always tries to control the creativity that builds upon it. Free societies enable the future by limiting this power of the past. Ours is less and less a free society.
10 If the Internet teaches us anything, it is that great value comes from leaving core resources in a commons, where they're free for people to build upon as they see fit.
BAdd New Item