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See Lawrence Lessig At BayFF Monday
If you can be at Stanford University on Monday, Katina Bishop of the Electronic Frontier Foundation wants you to drop by the BayFF's 7 p.m. meeting, featuring law professor Lawrence Lessig (author of Code, and Other Laws of Cyberspace) speaking on "Architecting Innovation," to take place in room 290 of the Stanford Law School, Crown Quadrangle. (The event will also be Web cast; see the BayFF homepage for a link to the webcast.) I sat in on the online privacy debate BayFF hosted last August, and was very impressed.
When they control all the content, they'll have an incredibly easy time gaining control of the rest of the web. It is already a PITA to access tons of content without accepting cookies; Microsoft and the RIAA are working hard to ensure that you can't access movies and the rest of the content of the web without IDing yourself to them. The "collective behavior" that you posit isn't very collective- already the vast majority of internetizens are AOLers, with matching attitudes and ignorance, and that percentage is just going to get sure. Sure, we (the digerati) may bitch and moan but that really won't stop anything that big business wants to shove down our throats. Unless government can help us out. :( And that is a self-sustaining kind of thing- once you've got that kind of lockin, and you've got 95% of the population, it doesn't matter what the 1337 of the 'net (basically us) think or do, because we don't matter in the large economic scale of things.
That said- I'm not terribly sure that the very active role he posits for government is the solution. But something must occur. Otherwise, my Linux box will become a relic- because I'll need to buy a Windows box to rent a movie.
~luge
IAAL,BIANLY
Actually, if you read his book ("Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace") or any of a number of his writings, you'll see that you've taken him badly out of context. Lessig is very strongly anti-certs and pro-anonymity on the web. He's just very pessimistic; he feels that because certs and identifiability are strongly supported by business they will triumph.
In addition, if you'd actually bothered (again) to read his stuff, you'd see that he has a very reasonable position on government and the net. If government doesn't do it, business will. And if there is anything we can trust less than big government, it is big business. If you think that the mystical powers of the "internet" can somehow protect our rights against the DoubleClicks of the world without government intervention, you have another thing coming.
So... in short, you've deliberately trolled by misquoting Lessig, and you've done it in ways that aren't even plausible to anyone who has read substantial amounts of Lessig's work. He isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination- but please make more plausible critiques than these two.
IAAL,BIANLY
Lawrence lessig will also be appearing at the Commonwealth Club of California on Tuesday, February 20. This may be a more interesting appearance because the forum is not a traditional home of "cyber" issues. The Commonwealth Club is very much dedicated to all aspects of public affairs and has a very traditional (if staid) membership. I think it might be important to show policy groups such as this that these issues do matter in order to encourage more such events.
Well just goes to show that right after /. rule #1 "Always check that link before you click." is rule #2 "Never trust a link you haven't seen in its entirety." which is quickly follwed by rule 3 "Are you sure you trust that link?"
I don't want knowledge. I want certainty. - Law, David Bowie
Prof. Lessig did not argue in favor of internet taxation. Let's look at the entire quote:
I call that a prediction or analysis rather than arguing in favor of.
As for keeping the government out of the Internet, let's start by keeping Big Business out of lawmaking. I can directly attribute bad laws, such as the DMCA, as coming from corporations and organizations like the MPAA who currently buy a louder voice than the average voter or activist group. I counter with Big Business must not be allowed to determine the direction of the Internet. Their needs must never take priority over any individual's.
You may get a couple of moderators on crack to think your trash talk means something but I can say this. It isn't you talking to the DC Court of Appeals against the Sony Bono Copyright Act. I don't see your signature on a Amici Brief to get the DMCA overturned. I don't see you out on the stump going head to head with Jack Valenti over IP.
Yeah, we should turn our backs on someone capable of and currently fighting for us on these issues just because he feels that Internet taxation is inevitable and that policymakers don't spend enough time thinking about how their laws will impact the Internet. What a betrayal!
And yeah I already know I've been trolled. HAND.
I don't want knowledge. I want certainty. - Law, David Bowie
What, is he gonna teach us to leverage our synergy to create dynamic paradigm shifts for prosumers?
--
SecretAsianMan (54.5% Slashdot pure)
Washington, DC: It's like Hollywood for ugly people.
Oh stop trolling. Taxation of transactions on the internet is orthogonal to political/social "freedom" on the net. Think of it this way: if electronic commerce was taxed, then wouldn't the internet revert to the "golden days" of the eighties (and the web, the nineties), where there were much fewer idiot, AOLers, and banner ads throwing us into seizures? The evil "government", in fact, is the thing that is responsible for whatever freedoms you have on the net. We *cannot* naively ignore government. Idiot politicians will always pass stupid laws. People like ourselves, and the handful of ethical lawyers out there, *have* to be involved.
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
I agree that the law can be a bit tedious, but it's such an integral part of this community that you can't afford to act like you don't care. Lawrence consistently offers a number of critical views on which the entire Slashdot community bases its opinion of the digital age and free speech. The law may not be our greatest passion but we're compelled to understand it if we want to defend against it.
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In the intro to the interview, it is noted that Lessig will deliver a keynote titled "Free Code, Freeing Culture" at the O'Reilly Peer-to-Peer Conference on Friday, Feb. 16.
It is a fascinating interview. In fact, I am surprised that it didn't get posted here because it is both intelligent and educational. It stimulates the brain cells it does.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
If Lessig cannot get simple matters of policy as these correct, then why should we pay him any attention elsewhere? We should stick with people like Richard M Stallman, who know not to compromise on important principles. M
Lessig could have corrected these "simple matters of policy" corrected if it weren't for people like Richard Stallman. Look, the issues are not nearly as simple as they appear. Allthe free love crowd like stallman, have made it increasingly harder for folks like Lessig to accomplish the task at hand. When it all boils down it's politics and the end consumer. Who's gonna win? You may think it will be the consumer but the political drivers will always come out on top.
Voice your outrage against the DVD-CCA's crusade of strife, misery, and the pursuit of avarice.
"Ancillary does not mean you get to rule the world." --U.S. Circuit Judge Harry Edwards, speaking to the FCC's lawyer
Lawrence Lessig might look like a friend of freedom and free software, and he's supported by the EFF, so the appearance is a convincing one. Unfortunately for those of us who trust the EFF and who cherish freedom, Lessig cannot be trusted.
In a 1998 interview with Indialine.com, Lessig argued in favor of internet taxation (calling the current tax-free model "temporary") and favored compulsory use of digital certificates for online commerce: "Using digital certificates, governments can require buyers and sellers to make their transactions accountable - and therefore taxable - in some sense. I see this happening on an increasing scale within the next couple of years." He has similarly expressed ambivalence as to whether technologies like encrypted watermarks in digital audio are good for freedom and consumers.
In Lessig's own words, he is "concerned that the legal profession and policymakers do not think enough about the technological and architectural issues of the Internet." Why should they? Why would we want governments invading these realms of human interaction, when they've only caused trouble with their regulations elsewhere? The internet has thrived because it is free, not because of any government help (much less regulation). Governments must not be allowed to enter the realm of the internet. They are not welcome.
If Lessig cannot get simple matters of policy as these correct, then why should we pay him any attention elsewhere? We should stick with people like Richard M Stallman, who know not to compromise on important principles. Those are the people who deserve our support. Lessig has let us down.
-- Anne Marie