Lawrence Lessig’s Presentation at Google

By Jonathan Bailey • Dec 13th, 2007 • Category: Articles, Legal Issues, Videos

Though the video itself is nearly a year old and the presentation was given in October of last year, Professor Lessig’s talk at Google, as part of the Authors@Google series, remains just as relevant today as it did when it was first given.

Unfortunately, I just stumbled across this video today on accident and, looking at the views counter in YouTube, it appears that only a handful of others have run across it either.

In the presentation, Professor Lessig covers much of the same ground as he did in his previous speeches but deals heavily with the merging of the “read only” and “read/write” Web economies, stating that companies that successfully create this “hybrid” economy will be the most valuable on the Web.

He also, in the Q&A that followed, talked about copyright reforms that he’d like to see, including the reintroduction of some form of copyright formalities, such as copyright registration (something I would be opposed to), and modification to exactly what act “triggers” infringement since copying is effectively automatic when dealing with digital works.

The presentation is made all the more poignant by the fact that, a few months after this speech, he resigned as the chairman for Creative Commons and, not long thereafter, largely withdrew from copyrighting altogether.

This video is a must-watch for people interested in the role copyright will play on the Web and I am embedding it below.

Jonathan Bailey is The Webmaster and author of Plagiarism Today, which he founded in 2005 as a way to help Webmasters going through content theft problems get accurate information and stay up to date on the rapidly-changing field. He is also a consultant to Webmasters and companies to help them devise practical content protection strategies and develop good copyright policies.
Email this author | All posts by Jonathan Bailey

4 Responses »

  1. According to Recording Studio on December 14th, 2007 at 5:35 am:

    I found the lecture interesting and his Q&A session quite illuminating too. His take on the hybrid economy is quite incisive and something that a lot of off line businesses have to give serious thought to.

    I have some questions for you and I hope that you will not find me presumptuous.

    Why are you opposed to copyright registration?

    Why has Prof. Lessig resigned from CC and withdrawn from copyrighting altogether? From his presentations, of which I have seen three so far, he comes across as someone very keenly interested, involved and wanting to bring about changes in the field and your news gives the opposite impression.

  2. According to JB on December 14th, 2007 at 10:04 am:
    RS: Not presumptuous at all, I love good questions and these are two great ones. I was actually going to touch on the first in a future article, and may still, but I’ll go over some of it right now.

    Why am I opposed to copyright registration?

    I have a laundry list of reasons, I’ll go over the five I pull out of my hat right now.

    1. It punishes the ignorant: People who don’t understand copyright law obtain no protection through it. However, one’s understanding of copyright law is no indicator of the value of work they produce. Since most people are self-publishing these days on the Web, there are no record labels or publishing firms to walk them through the process or explain what needs to be done.

    2. It is not practical on the Web: Think of the millions of blog posts going up every day or the millions of images being posted online. They would all have to be registered. Either almost nothing would be registered or the system would be overwhelmed instantly. Look at my recent article on the new USCO registration system for insight on that.

    3. Copyright is an either/or Game: If we had registration as a requirement for obtaining copyright protection, I wouldn’t lose some of my rights, but rather, all of them. Anyone could do anything they wanted with my work, plagiarize it, sell it, etc.

    4. Copyright Registration Favors the Rich: We have to assume that any registration system will require a fee. The current one is $45. No major issue for record labels or publishers, but a huge problem for individual artists trying to eek out a living.

    5. Copyright is for the Artist: Copyright is supposed to protect the work and creativity of the artist. Though, here, we have a tendency to use it to validate the interests of publishers, it isn’t supposed to be that way. However, a mandatory registration system further supports the commercial establishment by taking rights away from artists who don’t register and ensure that they have a need of traditional distribution channels that can afford such protections easily. This is counter to the ideals of the Internet.

    Just some of my thoughts. My complete list is actually much longer.

    Why did Prof. Lessig resign?

    Well, he resigned as chairman but not as CEO of Creative Commons and has left his traditional copyright work behind. The reason he gave was to battle corruption, a “bigger fish to fry” situation.

    He is involved somewhat, just not nearly as much. But he wanted to fight a different fight, one he sees as more important. I can’t fault him for that even though I miss him.

    Hope that helps!

  3. According to Recording Studio on December 15th, 2007 at 4:50 am:

    The answers to the first question, certainly. I look forward to your elaborated post soon.

    The second leaves me unsatisfied but I understand.

    Thanks.

  4. According to JB on December 15th, 2007 at 8:58 pm:
    RS: I think the second answer leaves everyone unsatisfied. Unfortunately, only one person knows the full truth and that’s Prof. Lessig. I can only repeat what he’s told others.

    It was a sad day for a lot of us, including myself.

    Sorry I couldn’t answer the second one better but I’m glad the first one hit the mark!

Leave a Reply