Law Students

Lessig Talk on Law and Creative Culture

By Casebook Sherpa

I happened across this talk by Larry Lessig at TED in 2007 as I was reading some things about creativity and law:

In the talk, he says the law should encourage a “read-write” view of creative content. Rather than simply consuming creative content, the consumer should be able to republish it to a certain extent and add his own angle/flair/style to it. Understanding the role of law in this way should, in theory, encourage the type of amateur content creation and invention that the Internet is facilitating.

In this framework, copyright law should encourage these “copies” but discourage outright theft. It should serve as a middle ground between those who want to prohibit ALL use of copyright material by anyone other than the copyright holder and those who want to ignore or abolish copyright altogether.

This idea of a middle ground, I would add to Lessig’s formulation, should also serve to encourage innovation on corporate and entreprenurial levels, not just on the level of individual content creator. To do this, lawyers who work with startups and emerging companies should define their social purpose/role as serving innovators effectively and cost-efficiently as business partners in order to maximize the impact their innovation has on the marketplace and, in turn, enhancing American competitiveness abroad.

Full post as published by Fight The Hypo on August 17, 2009 (boomark / email).