"I'm a lawyer..I believe in the law. I believe in the law of copyright. Indeed, I have devoted my life to working in law not because there are big bucks at the end but because there are ideals at the end that I would love to live....The law should regulate in certain areas of culture but it should regulate culture only when that regulation does good. Yet lawyers rarely test their power, or the power they promote, against this simple pragmatic question: "Will it do good?" When challenged about the expanding reach of such law, the lawyer answers "why not?" We should ask: "Why?" Show my why your regulation of culture is needed. Show me how it does good. And until you can show me both, keep your lawyers away". (c) 2004 Lawrence Lessig, "Free Culture:The Nature and Future of Creativity"
From the copyright page of such book: "The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials".
Question - hypocrisy by Lessig, or proof of his point re: concentration of power in media companies?
For the record, this blog post constitutes political commentary/satire and is claimed as a "fair use" of such copyrighted materials. Zen/legal koan - is that last statement necessary?
PS - Lessig rules.
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