We always build on the past; the past always tries to stop us. Lawrence Lessig More Quotes by Lawrence Lessig More Quotes From Lawrence Lessig In a time of polarized politics there's one thing that more than ninety percent of Americans agree on, that our government is broken, and broken because of the money in politics. Lawrence Lessig ninety government broken Change the way we fund campaigns. Until we do, Wall Street will always be able to blackmail the Dems and GOP to giving them what Wall Street wants. Lawrence Lessig wall campaigns giving As I've indicated, most books go out of print within one year. The same is true of music and film. Commercial culture is sharklike. It must keep moving. And when a creative work falls out of favor with the commercial distributors, the commercial life ends. Lawrence Lessig book fall moving But, like all metaphoric wars, the copyright wars are not actual conflicts of survival. Or at least, they are not conflicts for survival of a people or a society, even if they are wars of survival for certain businesses or, more accurately, business models. Thus we must keep i mind the other values or objectives that might also be affected by this war. We must make sure this war doesn't cost more than it is worth. We must be sure it is winnable, or winnable at a price we're willing to pay. Lawrence Lessig survival war people One theme of what I've been writing has been to get people to understand that "apolitical" means "you lose." It doesn't mean you live a utopian life free of politicians' influence. The destruction of the public domain is the clearest example, but it will only be the first. Lawrence Lessig writing mean people There is still the illusion that if we could declare corporations are not people or that money is not speech, all would be solved. Regardless of the good in those ideas, it wouldn't. Lawrence Lessig would-be people ideas Permission from the government is an expensive commodity. New ideas rarely have this kind of support. Old ideas often have deep legislative connections to defend them against the new. Lawrence Lessig support government ideas Creativity builds upon the public domain. The battle that we're fighting now is about whether the public domain will continue to be fed by creative works after their copyright expires. That has been our tradition but that tradition has been perverted in the last generation. We're trying to use the Constitution to reestablish what has always been taken for granted--that the public domain would grow each year with new creative work. Lawrence Lessig creativity fighting taken Politics is that rare sport where the amateur contest is actually more interesting than the professional. Lawrence Lessig contests sports interesting I am big supporter of the idea of a global anti-corruption movement - but one that begins by recognizing that the architecture of corruption is different in different countries. The corruption we suffer is not the same as the corruption that debilitates Africa. But it is both corruption, and both need to be eliminated if the faith in democracy is not going to be destroyed. Lawrence Lessig suffering country ideas The danger in media concentration comes not from the concentration, but instead from the feudalism that this concentration, tied to the change in copyright, produces. Lawrence Lessig produce media danger So uncritically do we accept the idea of property in culture that we don't even question when the control of that property removes our ability, as a people, to develop our culture democratically. Lawrence Lessig culture people ideas Now that copyrights can be just about a century long, the inability to know what is protected and what is not protected becomes a huge and obvious burden on the creative process. Lawrence Lessig inability creative long I'm focused on solving the problem that would make it plausible for gov't to get back to solving real problems. Lawrence Lessig plausible problem real And with a practice of writing comes a certain important integrity. A culture filled with bloggers thinks differently about politics or public affairs, if only because more have been forced through the discipline of showing in writing why A leads to B. Lawrence Lessig writing integrity thinking While the creative works from the 16th century can still be accessed and used by others, the data in some software programs from the 1990s is already inaccessible. Lawrence Lessig program data creative Monopoly controls have been the exception in free societies; they have been the rule in closed societies. Lawrence Lessig monopoly exception has-beens Creativity and innovation always builds on the past. The past always tries to control the creativity that builds upon it. Free societies enable the future by limiting this power of the past. Ours is less and less a free society. Lawrence Lessig innovation creativity past Freedom is about stopping the past. Lawrence Lessig refrain stopping past If there were two candidates, a Democrat and a Republican, who each committed to the same kind of fundamental reform, then the election would be an election between the vice presidential candidates. It'd be just like the regular election, except it would be one step down. Lawrence Lessig presidential vices two
