Slashdot Mirror
The Future of Ideas
Ideas has been reviewed in Salon and in the Washington Monthly; the book has a promotional website as well.
Lessig starts off by looking at the idea of a "commons," a community resource of some sort. The traditional commons is a public park or piece of land, but Lessig is more interested in looking at less-traditional commons on the 'Net and other communications systems. He moves on to examining some of the innovations that have been spurred by the recent growth of the Net -- typically startup companies that have taken advantage of the commons represented by TCP/IP and HTTP to provide a new service or product. If you follow Slashdot religiously, you probably read about most of these companies at least twice -- once when they started offering their innovative new whizbang, and again when they were sued by Megacorp, Inc., and shut down. The final part of Ideas covers the lawsuits, or more precisely the efforts by entrenched players to keep anyone else from playing. The distinction is important, because lawsuits are not the only way to keep upstarts from being able to participate: control of the code is also an important tool. For every control through lawsuits story that Slashdot runs, there's an equivalent story about control through code.
Just as in Code, Lessig is not optimistic about the future. Why should he be? So far, despite every warning, every attempt to sound the alarm, the forces trying to shut down innovation are winning in an utterly convincing fashion. A blurb compares the book to Silent Spring, the famous book about the environmental effects of DDT. Silent Spring was more or less successful -- DDT is now banned for most uses in the U.S., and the book had great effect in raising environmental awareness, but overall, environmental quality has continued to suffer. Lessig's book is not likely to be as successful. Attacking DDT was relatively easy compared to attacking the unlimited expansion of intellectual property, which has many multi-billion dollar companies willing to fight to defend their continued erosion of the public commons.This should suffice to summarize Lessig's book. The ideas in it should not be unfamiliar -- Lessig is hardly the only one espousing this point of view today, though he is one of the most articulate. The final chapters have Lessig's suggestions for ways to reverse this trend of quashing innovation -- different ways of managing the electromagnetic spectrum to produce a better wireless commons (it's worth noting that the unlicensed 2.4 Ghz band has been the source of most recent wireless innovation), ways to create an Internet commons on the wired network (some municipalities are already doing this, laying municipal fiber to the home and following an open access policy), changing copyright law and patent law to put more code in the public domain, changing contract law so that end-users can't be forced to sign away their rights. All are good suggestions. Despite the hopeful notes in parentheses just above, most of these suggestions stand little chance of being adopted any time soon. But perhaps Rachel Carson was looking at much the same uphill battle against DDT.
Ideas is most comparable to The Control Revolution by Andrew Shapiro, an earlier effort to explore the changing dynamics of control on the net. Shapiro was much more optimistic, and writing without much of the recent evidence that Lessig uses to make his point that innovation is being squashed thoroughly. If you will, there is an optimism scale -- John Perry Barlow defines one end of the scale, Shapiro is in the middle, and Lessig occupies the pessimistic side. Smart money is on Lessig.
All in all, it's a fine book. I think I prefer Code though, for a variety of reasons -- I find the central premise of Code to be less obvious, more ground-breaking. Or perhaps I've just read so much about "innovation" during the Microsoft trials that I can never again read the word without wincing. As with Code, Lessig has extensive footnotes, making this a scholarly work (for the scholars) but a perfectly readable book even for non-scholars. In any case, it's strongly recommended.
You can purchase this book at Fatbrain. Want to see your own review here? Read the book review guidelines, then submit using Slashdot's web-submission page :)
second
I am second.
tick tock.. waiting for that 20 seconds to pass.
I think I'll buy that book. Very appropriate at this point in the game that is our lives. Intersting.
I just heard some sad news on the radio - author Stephen King was found dead in his Maine home this morning. They didn't offer any more details - it was just a short news blurb. Even if you don't like his movies or books, there's no denying his contribution to American pop culture. Truly and icon to be remembered.
I find it unbelievably hypocritcal that Michael would abuse his power like this in a story like this! For shame, Simsy!
stream, stream, out of me erse
When red cars are red, only cars that are red will be red.
I HATE the 'when xxx is outlawed...' slogan. It basically says A=A. Nothing new in that.
Poop.
Poop.
Shit.
Poop.
Poop.
Shit.
Arse!
Arse!
Ass!
Here's an innovative IDEA! Check out these "IT IS NOT A CRIME" gear now, perfect for a holiday gift or office gift.
though perhaps the moderator moderating that post has never read Huxley's classic on control and censorship, 1984.
Im Trolling for the Removal of Jon Katz. Where's your afghanistan boy now, Katz!? maybe he's coding in C++ on a commodore 64 writing a new DVD player program so he can shove DVD's into his 1514 and try to read them in there!
there is a freakin E, comments that come from people will fourth grade spelling errors seem much less intelligent.
you a winna , ha ha ha
I don't think this metaphor applies as mercenary knights always had the attention of ladies where geeks well ... you know ... lets just say they are typical lacking for female affection.
1984 was written by George Orwell, if I'm not in a mistake.
I'm from Argentina: Tango, Asado, Mate, Gaucho, Maradona, YPF
come from people will fourth grade spelling errors
Typos happen to the best of us don't they?
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Give me LIBERTY, or give me a check.
I slept with your whore of a girlfriend. And I have to say that it was really boring, she just laid there like a sack of potatoes.
But sex is sex.
because 10 people might get killed by all the insecticide.
Stephan King was my favorite author and director :(.
squelch this ..
American forces in Afghanistan will be betrayed and routed by the joint forces of the Northern Alliance and Taliban.
If they tried that they would get a severe ass beating.
Iraq will send seven million men of their God's army against Israel. Countering this move will pin down all Israel forces and most of the American resources in the region.
Israel alone would have no trouble kicking Iraq's ass. Such an attempt by Saddam would probrably result in the annihilation of every single Arab in the Mideast.
China will move against Taiwan, occupying the island. American forces are spread too thin to respond.
American forced are indeed spread too thin (thanks, Bill). This fact means that the US would have no choice than to wipe the PRC off the map.