Stanford professor Larry Lessig is one of our foremost authorities on copyright issues, with a vision for reconciling creative freedom with marketplace competition.
Why you should listen to him:
No expert has brought as much fresh thinking to the field of contemporary copyright law as has Lawrence Lessig. A Stanford professor and founder of the school’s Center for Internet and Society, this fiery believer foresaw the response a threatened content industry would have to digital technology -- and he came to the aid of the citizenry.
As corporate interests have sought to rein in the forces of Napster and YouTube, Lessig has fought back with argument -- take his recent appearance before the U.S. Supreme Court, fighting the extension of copyright protection from 50 to 70 years -- and with solutions: He chairs Creative Commons, a nuanced, free licensing scheme for individual creators.
Lessig possesses a rare combination of lawerly exactitude and impassioned love of the creative impulse. Applying both with equal dedication, he has become a true hero to artists, authors, scientists, coders and opiners everywhere.
http://lessig08.org/
"Lessig has built a reputation as the king of Internet law and as the most important next-wave thinker on intellectual property."New York Magazine
Blog Posts on TED
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How creativity is being strangled by the law: Larry Lessig on TED.com – November 6, 2007
Larry Lessig gets TEDsters to their feet, whooping and whistling, for this elegant presentation of “three stories and an argument.” The Net’s most adored lawyer brings together John Philip Sousa, celestial copyrights, and the “ASCAP cartel” to build a case for creative freedom. He pins down the key shortcomings of our dusty, pre-digital intellectual property laws, and reveals how bad laws beget bad code. Then, in an homage to cutting-edge artistry, he throws in some of the most hilarious remixes you’ve ever seen. (This talk, like all TED.com's content, is licensed under Creative Commons -- which Larry created.) (Recorded March 2007 in Monterey, California. Duration: 19:07.)
Watch Larry Lessig's talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances.
Read more about Larry Lessig on TED.com.
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Vote for your favorite public intellectuals – May 1, 2008
Not to be outdone by the Time 100, the journals Foreign Policy and Prospect have together released a list of the Top 100 public intellectuals -- with voting. Many TEDTalks favorites appear on the list, and you can help choose the eventual top 20 by voting for your very own top 5. From Foreign Policy's site:
Although the men and women on this list are some of the world’s most sophisticated thinkers, the criteria to make the list could not be more simple. Candidates must be living and still active in public life. They must have shown distinction in their particular field as well as an ability to influence wider debate, often far beyond the borders of their own country.
TEDTalks speakers on this top 100 list include George Ayittey, Steven Pinker, Neil Gershenfeld, Malcolm Gladwell, Craig Venter, Al Gore, Richard Dawkins, Vilayanur Ramachandran, Larry Lessig, Steven Levitt, E.O. Wilson, Dan Dennett and Bjorn Lomborg -- and look for upcoming TEDTalks from others on this list, including Paul Collier, who spoke at TED2008 about "the bottom billion."
See the full list of 100 >> -
Larry Lessig for Congress? – February 20, 2008
In response to the unofficial movement to draft Larry Lessig to run for US Congress, Lessig has set up his own site, Lessig08.com, to help him decide if he should run for a seat in California's 12th District. A 10-minute video on the site lays out his platform.
Lessig08.com will also host Lessig's yet-to-launch Change Congress initiative, an effort to fight corruption in government. Lessig has devoted himself to this effort -- in fact, TEDTalks hosts one of Lessig's last lectures on copyright law, his previous cause.
