Lawrence Lessig
1961– · American academic, political activist
Topics: life, learning, creativity, open source
Show me why your regulation of culture is needed. Show me how it does good. And until you can show me both, keep your lawyers away.
— Lawrence LessigSo uncritically do we accept the idea of property in ideas that we don't even notice how monstrous it is to deny ideas to a people who are dying without them.
— Lawrence LessigCommon sense is with the copyright warriors because the debate so far has been framed at the extremes — as a grand either/or: either property or anarchy, either total control or artists won't be paid.
— Lawrence LessigCreation always involves building upon something else. There is no art that doesn't reuse. And there will be less art if every reuse is taxed by the appropriator. Monopoly controls have been the exception in free societies; they have been the rule in closed societies.
— Lawrence LessigWe live in a world with "free" content, and this freedom is not an imperfection.
— Lawrence LessigMonopolies are not justified by theory; they should be permitted only when justified by facts. If there is no solid basis for extending a certain monopoly protection, then we should not extend that protection.
— Lawrence LessigIn the context of software development, where you have sequential and complementary developments, patents create an extraordinarily damaging influence on innovation and on the process of developing and bringing new ideas to market.
— Lawrence LessigOverregulation stifles creativity. It smothers innovation. It gives dinosaurs a veto over the future. It wastes the extraordinary opportunity for a democratic creativity that digital technology enables.
— Lawrence LessigIn these times, the hardest task for social or political activists is to find a way to get people to wonder again about what we all believe is true. The challenge is to sow doubt.
— Lawrence Lessig